From Past to Present
by daz00
Summary: Troy Bolton, the stud of East High. Gabriella Montez, the geeky math girl. Hot couple of East High until... Nine years later they reunite through their daughter J. M. Bolton. Obviously AU and Troyella. R&R  FIXED !
1. Chapter One

**Chapter 1 **

It was dark and it was raining, yet she didn't want to go home, not now nor ever. She had to find a place to stay, but she couldn't come up with anything.

She could stay with Bill's family, but surely his mother would alert her dad and then he'd drag her home to that awful hag!

Aunt Taylor wasn't in town and she'd probably tell dad as well. Karen was on a summer vacation and Helen was out of town as well. She could stay in an Inn, but then again, she was broke.

She cursed loudly as the rain got stronger and to keep at least one inch of her clothes dry, she dodged under the first extendable roof she could see. She sat there for a good few minutes, but the rain didn't seem to stop. No, it was getting even worse.

The girl sneezed and rubbed her hands together, when a woman rushed under the same roof. She was closing her umbrella when she noticed the girl, somewhere between fourteen to sixteen years old, crouching by the wall.

"Are you okay?" the woman asked, looking rather concerned.

The girl looked up at her. She wanted to snap at her or yell, how happy she was right now, but for some reason her sarcastic bone [the biggest one in her body didn't seem to work, so she just nodded, looking and feeling miserable.

When the woman didn't seem to move, the girl understood why.

"I'm sorry," she quickly said rising up, "I didn't mean to block your doorway or take cover under your roof, it's just that it's raining so bad and… why are you smiling?"

The woman was indeed doing just that. "Where do you live?" she asked, not answering her question.

The girl scowled and waved towards the left, "About two miles that way, but I rather sleep in the gutter than go home!"

She wasn't definitely a kid that slept on the street, the woman marked. She was wearing expensive clothes and her sneakers were brand new.

"Do you have problems at home?" the woman asked now. The girl looked her suspiciously. "Why?"

"Well you are not going home even though it's raining this bad. You're scowling at the mere mention of your home and so, I just guessed." 

The girl started to reply, but was interrupted by another sneeze.

"Poor girl," the woman said, back to her concerned self, "Come in."

"In?" the girl asked, looking shocked, "Why would you want to invite me in?"

"Well, I'm not going to let you sleep outside on the street while it's raining like that. Well, I'm afraid you could be stubborn enough to sleep anywhere, if it means you don't have to go home and if it has to be something, then at least you'd be warm and safe inside.

For a moment they stared each other until the girl grudgingly trotted into a hallway. Unintentionally, she whistled.

The woman behind her chuckled, as she took off her coat and placed her umbrella into the corner of the room. 

"Make yourself feel like home," she said guiding her into the living room after she removed her shoes.

"It'll be one hell of a nice home," The girl muttered, but the woman didn't seem to hear. She looked up to see her gone. She blinked. Where could she have gone now?

Her question was answered a minute later, when the woman returned with a huge blanket. Wordlessly she gestured her towards the fireplace and the girl did so without a question.

"Hopefully you'll dry quickly enough for not to catch cold," the woman said, when a till was heard. She grinned slightly before rising and going through a doorway which the girl thought was a kitchen and then she returned with two big cups of hot chocolate. She placed them on the tiny table between the two armchairs, which were positioned in front of the fireplace.

She smiled as the girl stared the cups suspiciously.

"Don't worry, I'm not the witch you lures young kids into my house and then poisons them," she said. The girl looked at her and answered,

"You don't look like Sarah either."

"Sarah?"

"My father's girlfriend, who is the biggest witch in the history!" the girl exclaimed, "She keeps calling me stupid and moronic every time we're alone, but when dad's around… oh no – 'Sweet little angel, blah-blah- blah,' she imitated a high pitched voice and scowled even more, "She even said flat out that when she gets married to dad she'll have me sent to a boarding school somewhere on the continent. When I talk to dad, he won't even believe me!"

She seemed really upset and the woman knew it, "Chocolate chip cookies?" she asked, giving her the bowl. She herself always ate some when she was upset.

The girl seemed to be like her, because wordlessly she reached out and took a chocolate cookie. When she finished she looked somewhat more collected, but when she started to speak, the woman was proven otherwise.

"Today he told me that they are getting married! He didn't even ask how I felt about it, he just said it! 'Hello darling! Guess what? I'm marrying the hag who keeps bugging you. Aren't we all excited?"

For a moment both of them stared into the fire and then the girl asked, "What's your name anyways?"

The woman chuckled for a moment, before she answered,

"Gabriella, Gabriella Black."

"Oh. Well you can call me Max. All my friends do anyways."

"Why, thank you," Gabriella answered, laughing. "Now what do you say we call your dad. He's probably worried."

Max shook her head with all of her might, her brown hair flying around. "Please don't make me call him. Not yet anyways… Maybe I'll call when I'm fifty."

"Max…" 

"Miss Gabriella, pleeeeaaaseeee," The girl said. Their brown eyes locked and for a while neither of them spoke until…

"Fine, you can stay over for tonight. But you'll call your dad tomorrow, okay."

"Alright," the girl said. "I just need a place to stay until the rain stops anyways."

"Wait, let me amend that," Gabriella said, "You'll talk to your dad tomorrow."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"Fine."

**moment of silence**

"Really have to?"

"Yep."

"Okay."

**Another moment of silence**

"Are you married?"

Gabriella's head turned until she faced the girl. "Why are you asking that?"

The girl shrugged. "No reason what-so-ever. Just wondering."

Gabriella shook her head. "I was married once, but he died two years ago. His picture is on the fireplace, see? Orlando Black. He had an untreatable heart disease."

"Oh," Max said, "Sorry."

"No problem," Gabriella answered. "You dried up enough?"

"Guess so," Max said, "See no dripping."

She stood up and Gabriella nodded, her clothes were dry enough, but not close to what they should be so they could go to sleep.

"Guess we'll hang out here for some time more," Gabriella marked, "Want to watch a movie?"

"Sure, what are we watching?"

"You've seen Ella Enchanted?" Gabriella asked, looking through her videos.

"Oh yes," Max said, "I love it!"

"Yeah, me too," Gaby said with a grin. She then took the remote and sat near the fireplace and turned on the TV. And in the back of her mind just a tiny thought was nagging her. Why the hell did the girl next to her look so familiar. 

XxXxXxXxXx

Gabriella Black woke up the next morning to find herself in a weird position. She had fallen asleep in the armchair. On her arm a big bunch of the blanket had been piled and on it a head rested. It took her about ten seconds to remember who exactly she was.

Gently she shook her arm. The girl woke up soon enough and looked around groggily. She jumped when her face was turned enough to see Gabriella staring at her.

"Oh, sweet Jesus, don't scare me like that," She gasped out after she took control of her heartbeat again.

Gabriella laughed out right and rose from her chair, "We must've fallen asleep during the second time we watched the movie."

"It's a good movie," Max protested, "I just fell asleep because it was late, it was warm and I was comfortable."

"'Course," Gabrielle agreed, "Now, we're going to clean up, have breakfast and then you're going to call your father."

"Can't I just live in your backyard?" the girl asked, yawning.

"What?"

"I mean I could sneak to my house, grab the tent and the sleeping bag… maybe some seeds from Aunt Muriel and then I'll grow my own food!"

Gabriella shook her head as she laughed, "You're having me on, right? Right?"

"Maybe," Max answered with a sleepy smile, "Maybe not."

"Oh you promised to call your dad yesterday and you are not going to break your word are you?" Gabriella asked, leaning against the door and looking at her with raised eyebrows.

Max muttered something, before she asked, "Where's the bathroom?"

"Upstairs, first door to the left," the woman directed. "Do you want eggs, bacon or both?"

"Both please! No ham in the eggs though, I hate when people do that."

Gabriella laughed, "Me too. So I honestly wasn't going to put any in!" She didn't know if she heard, but she said it anyways. Actually having someone else in the house was rather fun.

Gabriella had moved to L.A four weeks ago, since she got a job offer for one of the best Medical Research jobs and that's exactly what she was interested in. Since she specialized in biomedical diseases, the job was right down her alley and the fact that it got her away from Washington helped.

She had lived in Washington for about nine years. At first she had went to a college and specialized in medicine. Her co-student Orlando was often paired with her for projects and so they got closer. When they both ended up working for the same hospital for practical experience their bond grew.

Gaby still doesn't know if what she had with Orlando was real love, but when he proposed… Having someone like Orlando to rely on made her feel safe and loved. And safeness and love were things she craved for at that period of time.

"Hmm, this smells good."

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Gabriella said, a bit distraught. "So how many do you want?"

"I usually have two and three," Max answered. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine, why shouldn't I be?"

"Dunno," Max answered, shrugging, "You looked like you were on another planet."

"Well I'm not and while I'm on this planet, I'm making sure that you call your dad."

Max tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before she looked up at her. Again, Gabriella felt all weird for some reasons, but she chose to ignore it. "Okay?"

"Alright, whatever you say, ma'am."

"Uh, don't call me that," Gabriella said, frowning, "Makes me feel like I'm fifty."

"So how old are you?" Max asked, sniffing the bacon on her plate.

"Guess."

"Twenty…five?"

Gabriella laughed, "You're a charmer, aren't you?"

"What?" Max asked, confused. "You're older?" Gaby nodded "Twenty seven?" Gaby shook her head "Thirty?" Nope "Thirty two?" Close! "Thirty three?"

"Yeah, you guessed it," Gabriella answered, smiling.

"You don't look older than twenty five though."

"Wow, thank you," Gabriella answered, smiling. "And you? How old are you? Sixteen?"

"Whoa, I'm flattered that you think I'm that mature and everything, but you're overbidding."

"Fifteen?"

"Nope."

"Fourteen."

"That's half right and half wrong," Max answered, "I'm getting fourteen in a month."

Gabriella nodded, before she pointed to the phone, "Now we call your dad."

Grudgingly, Max finally called their home number.

"Hello."

"Uh… Is dad there?"

"You little brat," Someone screeched and since it was on speaker even Gabrielle took a step back. "Because of you I had to spend an hour trotting around in the rain last night! You get your stupid little head home right now! Last night I fell and broke a nail…"

_-Beep-_

"Why did you do that for?" Max asked looking up at Gabrielle who had disconnected the call.

"Is she always like that?" Gabrielle asked, looking rather disgusted at the voice she heard.

Max shrugged, before she grinned. "I knew something good had to come out of this."

"That is?"

"She broke a nail – Hah! If there's something she loves more than her hair, it's her nails and now her nails are sooo uneven!"

Gabrielle laughed, "Go on; call your dad's cell."

"I called already…"

"You promised to talk to your dad…"

"Fine," Max said, dialing another number. This time she picked the phone up though.

-Beeeeeep- -Beeeeeeeep-

"Hallo?"

"Daddy?" Max hesitantly started.

"Julie is that you?"

"Yeah, daddy it's me." Gabriella smiled caringly and Max found herself smiling back.

"Where are you? Don't move! Go home! I'll come there as soon as I get off work!"

"…Am I supposed to go home or not move?" Max asked and Gabriella laughed next to her.

"Whose that?"

"Uh, that's the woman I stayed over with… No, I didn't check her… what? Alibi? What did she need an alibi?"

Gabriella laughed out loud by now and Max found it rather encouraging sound, very much unlike Sarah's screeching.

"Yeah, I'll go home and wait," Max said, "I love you too."

She then hung up and stared at the phone for a few moments, before she resignedly sighed, "I think I got to go home."

Gabriella smiled, "It's not all that bad. Your dad will be home soon and then you can speak to him about this… Calmly and without that horrible woman around preferably."

"See, you don't like her and you've just heard her speak for a half of a minute. I've had to be around her for months!"

"Well a person who does a sound like THAT, can't be all normal can she? I mean I knew a pair of siblings who used to make funny noises to relax in high school and compared to her… they were doing the sounds of angels."

"You know what?" Max asked, "I pretty much like you already."

Gabriella laughed and picked up her keys from the counter. Max looked at her with risen eyebrows.

"What? I'm dropping you off. I need to do the groceries anyways."

"How do you know it's on your way?"

"I'll make it be on my way," Gabriella answered, throwing her head back in a snobbish way, her black hair waving behind her. She grinned when Max burst out laughing.

"Is your hair naturally black?" Max asked as she climbed into Gabriella's car and fastened her seatbelt.

"Nope, actually it's more like dark brown… something similar to yours. By the way it's a nice tan you have."

"It's not a tan," Max said, "I'm like this all seasons. Something with dark blood along the family. And if I have a good tan, then what do you have? The super-tan?"

"If it comforts you I don't getting anything out of sunbathing either, I'm like this since I was born," Gabrielle answered laughing as she pulled out of the driveway. Max looked as the house got smaller and smaller.

"I'm trying to memorize what it looked like," she answered to Gaby's unasked question.

"Didn't you memorize it last night?"

"Are you kidding? All I saw of your house from the outside was the inside tiles of the roof."

Gabriella laughed as Max asked, "What's that funny? I could have caught a cold! Actually… I'm extremely lucky that I ended up under that roof… everyone else probably would have thrown me out of their property."

"Oh not all people are that bad," Gabriella said, "Just some of them."

"I live here," Max said pointing to a white house with red roof. It had a white fence around it and on the sides of the house some flowers had been planted. Gaby stopped the car and Max climbed out.

She said goodbye to Gabriella and walked towards the house when out of nowhere Sarah practically jumped out.

Max groaned inwardly as she put a sickly sweet smile onto her face. "Hello."

"Oh don't you hello me," Sarah snapped, "Where were you last night?"

"Why do you care?" Max snapped back, her politeness forgotten.

"As long as your actions concern me, I care! Do you know how much it costs to get my boots and pants, which right now are covered in mud, dry-cleaned."

"Like you're worried about that. You'll use daddy's money as always!"

A smirk appeared on Sarah's lips and for a brief second Max just wanted to strangle her.

"Oh yes. His money. Thank you for reminding me the reason why I put up with you in the first place. Now go to your room!"

"You can't order me to…"

"I SAID, GO TO YOUR ROOM!"

"No, I…"

"YOU DO AS I SAY!"

"Oh, hello!"

Sarah wheeled around on her spot in record speed to stand practically face-to-face with a woman about two inches taller than her. She had almost waist length midnight black wavy black hair, her brown eyes bore deep into her green ones and her skin was in dark tones. She was dressed in black jeans with regular, yet classy white shirt. She was holding a small sweater and to Sarah she looked a bit angry.

That's because Sarah has just a half of a brain. To Max, she looked boiling of anger, but she could also tell she was trying to appear calm.

Instead of hitting Sarah like Max hoped she would, she smiled. The same sickly sweet and 100 fake smile Max wore around Sarah.

"Hello," she repeated, "I'm here to speak with Max's father."

"Max's…father…"

"Yes… Max's f-a-t-h-e-r," Gabriella repeated, wondering if Sarah's hair dye was absorbing itself into her brain.

"You want to talk to Max's father?"

"Didn't we just establish that?" Gabriella snapped, reminding Max a bit of herself. "Do I have to spell it out, again?"

Max snickered while Sarah looked like she was getting ready to panic. "Why would you need to talk to her father?"

"Well…" Gaby wasn't the quickest thinker in her year for no reason as her mind reeled over things in mega speed. If she told her that she needed to talk to him about what she just heard, she'll go into defense mode and that'll do no good. She could also say it was business, but then again she didn't know who Max's father was professionally. But she couldn't leave Max here either.

"I need to talk to him about the ancient vase his daughter broke."

For just a split second Max looked caught in headlights, but then again, she wasn't the brightest kid in the class for nothing. "I said I'm sorry," she snapped in a tone, that apparently said everything Sarah needed to know, "I won't help you out with gardening and groceries just because some stupid vase! Sarah can pay."

Sarah looked at her and when she did, Gabriella threw her head back a bit and voicelessly laughed.

"Yes, you are young lady."

Max took a few calming breaths so she wouldn't start laughing at the way she said young lady.

"I've always been nice to you…" 'Both Max and Gabriella rolled their eyes' "but it's time you took care of your own troubles. I'm sorry for yelling at you, but I was worried…" 'More eye rolling from Max and Gaby ensured'

"So you'll go with this nice lady and help her out until she believes that the vase is paid for… How expensive was it?"

"The vase?" Gabriella asked, this time thinking about the vases she had at home, "Not that much, just 3000 dollars."

If Sarah's mouth could've hit the ground, it would have. "3000 dollars? A vase?"

"Yeees, I just said that… again."

For a moment there was a thoughtful look on Sarah's face. A look that was very rare on her face.

"You're the woman who moved into the Black's house down the street, aren't you? The sole heir of late Orlando?"

Yes, if it has something to do with money or gossip, Sarah knew. Though it wasn't a subject Gabriella was willing to discuss with anyone, especially the woman in front of her.

"Yes, well that's true, but I don't see how talking about my husband will solve the problem with the vase…"

"Oh, of course," Sarah quickly said, her eyes gleaming, "Max will come with you right away and you'll just have her do what you need to be done. She's a good kid. And of course, you're welcome to stop by; we could discuss our common points of interest."

"Yes, I'll have to check my calendar. I'm a very busy woman and I'm starting work from the 1st September."

"You work?" Sarah asked, with such wide eyes like Gabriella had just told her she was an alien from out of space.

"Yes, I work. Don't you?" Gabriella was getting more and more annoyed with the woman and keeping up the polite façade was getting harder.

"No, I believe it's the men who should keep up the families…" Gabriella tuned out her voice and looked at Max instead. She looked right back at her and they both rolled their eyes together.

"Yes, miss… Sarah, right?" Gabriella said, "It was a pleasure meeting you, but I have some groceries to do and I have to hire someone to take care of the yard near my house and I also have some other errands to run… Excuse me."

She turned around and started to walk away, before she turned her head, her hair doing a beautiful arch, "Max, are you coming?"

Max blinked, before she pushed herself away from the post she had been leaning on and caught up with her.

As they were out of the hearing range both of them started to rant at the same time. They stopped, looked at each other and started to laugh.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…" Max started to chant.

"What are you doing?" Gabriella asked, smiling at her.

"Since I'm eternally grateful, I might as well start now," Max explained, "So you're rich?"

"Why do you think that?"

"Because that could be the only explanation why Sarah is nice to anybody. Either that or she wants something really bad."

Gabriella opened the car door and climbed in, Max doing the same.

"I'm not that rich, but yes, I do have 3000 dollar vases in that house," Gabriella said with a smile, "Actually most of the money I own came from Orlando… or his father to be exact. When his father died he gave all of his money to Orlando, who didn't really want any of it. Some problems they had with each other."

"Well, when Orlando told me about his heart disease, I was devastated and when he told me he was going to give me all of his money – I sent him to hell. Not that I meant it literally, but I was so furious at him… He had known about his disease since he was five and yet, he told me nothing."

Max was listening with huge attention as Gabriella continued,

"But he insisted. Probably because it was either me or his cousin who was a gambling addict and well, he knew about me and medicine and he was happy with the way I said I'll be spending at least some of it."

"How?" Max asked as they turned left.

"I donated it to medical research facilities and some other charities."

"This'd be a good point to mention that this is an even bigger difference between you and Sarah. She'd rather buy herself one million pair of shoes then give away a dime," Max said, scowling at the mental picture of her.

"About Sarah… Where did you dad find a girl like that?" Gabrielle asked, her mind thinking about two most obvious places – Fast food restaurant or Hooters.

"Probably some place like Hooters," Max said. When Gabrielle burst out laughing, she gave her the 'weird eyes'.

"Sorry, it's just that I was thinking exactly that," Gabrielle said, straightening up shortly afterwards. "Since you're pretty much stuck with me for this month presumably… which way to the mall?"

XxXxXxXxXx

**A/N –** Come on, give me reviews and tell me if I should continue or not… It's not I get anything else for a reward than your reviews :D


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter 2**

"How can you take a wrong turn in a straight road?" Max asked as they climbed out of the car. Somehow they had managed to get from the little place they were living in into the big city.

"Don't ask me, I'm new in the neighborhood," Gabriella answered, "I've got good news and a bad one. Which one do you want?"

"Bad one," Max said.

"I have no idea where exactly we are and how to get back."

Max smiled wryly, "and the good news?"

"There's a grocery store right next to us," Gabriella gestured to a shop next to their parked car.

"Fabulous news," Max said, giving her thumbs up, "Jeez, I've been living in here for twelve years, yet I have no idea where we are."

"We could ask someone," Gabriella offered, "After we do the grocery shopping."

"We're lost in one of the biggest cities in the states and you're worried about groceries?" Max asked. Gabriella shrugged,

"Somehow we're going to get home. The question is whether I have to do grocery shopping again after we get there."

"You're having me on, right?" Max asked, "Like you're pretending to be lost and you're just doing this to make me nervous? So you'd know, I don't get nervous easily – unless I get a lot of unwanted attention."

"Hey, I had that problem when I was younger," Gabriella said with a smile, "It went away when I started to sing though."

"You sing?"

"Not anymore. I used to, but it was a long time ago," Gabriella answered with a funny look in her eyes that showed that she was relieving a memory.

"Oh come on, let's do the groceries and then we'll drive back the way we came, alright?" Max offered, "I mean how lost can we get."

**-30 minutes later-**

"Alright," Max said, "If you ever listen to what I say again, I'll have you put into a mental institution."

"Well, it's to trust the word of a fourteen year old, who has lived here for almost whole her life or me, who doesn't know the area at all," Gabrielle answered as the two of them looked around where they ended up, "At least before we had buildings around us."

True, right now, there were just trees and little plants.

"Why aren't you yelling or being mad?"

"Huh?" Was all Gabriella said, as she looked away from the map she had found from her car. "Mad? Why should I be mad? If I would have decided we'd be in Albuquerque."

**moment of silence**

"That wouldn't be too bad." They both said at the same time.

They looked at each other and smiled. "You've been to Albuquerque?" Gabriella asked.

Max nodded, "Uh-uh; my grandparents live there and dad has some friends who live there as well."

"Cool," Gabriella said with a nod of her head, "Now, if we look at this map this way, we should be here. If we look it that way – we should be… here."

"Gaby?"

"Yeah?"

"Look at this."

Gabriella looked where she was pointing. There was a tiny text, which said, "Made in 1978."

She stared. Max stared. "Damn," Gabriella muttered.

"Didn't know you had it in you," Max said with a smile, "Being all nice to all weird people like Sarah."

"I've had loads of practice," Gabriella answered, "Now… if we keep driving we ought to get to some sign, right?"

"Probably."

"If we find a sign, we'd be able to guess our location.

"Uh-uh."

"You up for it?"

"Let's do it."

After fifteen minutes of driving, Max was happy that Gabriella had done the grocery shopping as she pulled out a big cup of ice cream.

"You're an ice-a-holic," She exclaimed.

"A what?" Gabriella asked, smiling.

"That's what dad calls me, because I never get enough of ice cream," Max explained. "I love that they put spoons with these."

"Yeah, convenient, isn't it?"

"Definitely… Gabriella, do you think I could…"

"Eat my only caramel ice cream? Hardly." She started to slow down a bit and pulled onto the edge of the road. "50/50," she declared as she took one of the spoons.

They ate in silence for some time until Max stated, "You're not like the other grown-ups I know."

Gabriella looked at her, "What do you mean?"

Max shrugged, "I don't know. You're just… more… uh… well, I don't know what you are, but you're different."

"Is that a compliment or an insult?" Gabriella inquired between spoonfuls of ice cream.

"Compliment, definitely."

"So… do you have any kids?"

That was probably a wrong thing to ask, because Gabriella put down her spoon with a tiny click.

"I didn't mean to pry, I just…"

"No, it's alright. You're just curious," Gabriella said with a sigh. "I had a daughter, but when she was two, I had to leave town, because of an illness. When I got better and came back, my fiancée had taken my daughter and left as well."

"What happened to them?"

"No idea. I tried to track them down, but it didn't work very well and back then I didn't have a spare dime. All I earned went to college and I couldn't hire one of those private detectives."

"So you never found your daughter?"

"Nope," Gabriella answered, "And after a while I gave up, deciding that if my fiancée hid then he must have a good reason. Besides I never got to explain why I left, so he might as well believe I just dumped him."

Max offered her the spoon, "Eat ice cream or chocolate cookies; I always do when I'm sad or depressed. That's why our fridge is full of them every time Sarah sleeps over."

Gabriella smiled and Max frowned. "I'm sorry for bringing it up. I'm just a nosy 'geeky math girl.'"

The ice-cream Gabriella had swallowed seemed to go down the wrong way, because she started to cough. When she got over it, she asked,

"Who calls you that?"

"Some students in my class," the girl said dismissively. "They're just damn jealous because I'm so good in basketball and I'm one the smartest soon-to-be eighth grader out there."

She looked so proud saying it, that Gabrielle had to smile. "I was called that, by the way. Look how I turned out."

"If I'm 33 and look like you, I'd be extremely happy. But with Sarah and the ice cream madness, I'll probably be as round as a human can get by that age."

"You won't. I drowned myself into ice cream for years and I didn't gain an ounce."

"You're just lucky with the good metabolism."

"You know what metabolism means?"

"Of course, everybody does."

Gabriella smiled, "Well my boyfriend from high school had no clue and me and my friends tried to explain it to him soo many times that I think even a parrot would have remembered the phrase by the time we gave up."

"Why did you taught it to him anyways?"

"No reason, we just had some fun. I made sure he knew the basics of science and he showed me how to shoot hoops.

"You play basketball?" Max asked, interested.

"Played. I haven't played since I left the town I went to high school in."

"Oh and you haven't sang ever since either?"

"Pretty much," Gabriella said, taking a big scoop of ice cream.

Soon enough the ice cream was gone and the two of them were back in the car. They turned and kept driving. After an hour they managed to end up somewhere in the middle of the city again.

"What's the time?" Gabriella asked, yawning.

"7pm," Max answered. She was feeling hungry and tired. Her rumbling stomach proved the point.

"You eat fast food?" Gabriella asked. Max nodded and Gabriella turned towards the McDonalds. They got their food into the car and then drove for a few minutes, before Gabriella asked Max to wait as she went to a weird place. 

Ten minutes later she returned with a map and directions to their home.

"It's so obvious," Max said for the fifth time.

"Kind of," Gabriella answered again. "One thing for sure. Next time I'll take a new map when I go shopping for groceries."

"Still can't believe you took a wrong turn on a straight road."

"Shut up," Gabriella said, grinning. "I've always been badly orientated."

"Badly? You got lost on a one way, straight, road."

"Look whose talking. You got us in the middle of nothingness!"

"And you consulted a map that was made even before you were born!"

The two of them kept it up until they both started to laugh. "We're both pretty pathetic when it comes to orientating," Max concluded.

Gabriella agreed as she came to a stop in front of Max's house. "Here, my number. When you need to get out of the house, give me a call and I'll make sure you can repay for breaking my beautiful vase."

Max grinned, "Thanks. Even though we got lost, it was fun and Gabriella?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for your… daughter…" Max looked down at her feet, as being embarrassed about bringing the subject up again, but Gabriella was having none of that.

"One day I'll find her, even if I'm eighty by the time it happens. But the main point is that it will – just have to have some faith, right?"

Max smiled, "I'll see you around?"

"Probably."

"Bye."

"See ya."

Then see drove away and Max started to walk up towards the house. As soon as she opened the door, she was swept into a hug.

"Don't ever do that again? Do you hear me? Never, ever run away like that. I was so worried!"

"Daddy, I'm fine. See? Nothing's wrong."

Troy Bolton pulled a brown bang of hair away from his blue eyes and locked them with his daughter's brown ones. They always reminded him of her.

"Please, Julie, promise me that you won't run away again."

"I would, but I can't," she answered, "And call me Max, everybody else does."

"First off your name isn't Max and second, why did you run away. Then of course, where were you the night. Were you safe?"

"Wow, slow down," Max said to her dad, the only family she ever knew. "I was fine last night. Ms. Black took me in for the night and I went to help her with groceries in return. Why I ran away? That's a reeeaaal mystery isn't it?"

"Julie, Sarah isn't as bad as you think she is and yes, I am sorry for not discussing the possible marriage of Sarah and I with you first, but it happened on the spur of the moment."

"Well, me running away, happened on the spur of the moment too. It won't the next time though, because then I plan taking money… Running away is hard without any money."

"Angel, you are not running away from me again! Ever!" Troy said, "I'll postpone the weddings until you and Sarah clear things out."

"So they'll never happen?" Max asked with hopeful tone.

Troy shook his head, "Max you have to understand that I need someone to be besides me and you'll need a mother figure."

"What about my real mother daddy? You never talk about her! What happened?"

"Julie," troy said in a warning tone.

"That's what you always say when I ask about my mother!" Max snapped. "I need to know! Is she dead? Did she run away with the plumber? Did she travel to space? Give me something!"

"Go to your room."

"Daddy…"

"Julie Maxine Bolton, go to your room."

Though his voice was completely calm, Julie knew better than to argue with him and silently went to her room. She sat down onto her bed and she couldn't help but wonder what her mother could've been like and what could have happen to make his father completely ignore the subject of her. Did she cheat on him maybe?

She had done that kind of thinking often enough as she figured what her mother could've looked like and what she might've smelled like. Flowers, fresh pine, anything.

When Troy walked into the room later that night, his daughter was sleeping, sprawled out on her bed. He gently tucked her in and kissed her for good night.

"How did the talk go?" Sarah asked as soon as Troy walked in.

"We didn't talk that much. I just sat in the kitchen," Troy shortly said.

"You said you'd tell me when it was safe to come outside," Sarah said accusingly.

"Yes, well, I forgot," Troy answered taking off his pants, "Could we go to sleep now?"

"Are you sure…" Sarah started in what she thought was a seductive voice.

"Yes."

That ended that conversation and Troy climbed into the bed and as Sarah turned off the lights, he kept staring at the ceiling, images going through his head.

He was singing again and Gabriella was right next to him and he felt truly free.

He was twirling Gabriella around in an empty gym, both of them were laughing.

They were sitting in his secret spot, just talking.

Their first kiss in the hallway.

Them holding hands and going on a summer break.

The two of them swimming in the country club's pool.

The picnic in the golf course.

The song they sang on the talent show.

They taking it all out of the last year as high school students.

Receiving their scholarships.

The news about Julie.

The intense moments while Gabrielle was in labor.

Julie's first words.

Her first steps.

The letter.

Troy gripped the blankets a bit harsher. That letter had basically said for him to grow Julie into a fine woman and take care of both of them, because she is not able to. She had to leave.

She could have explained! She could have given him a reason to wait and he would have. He would have waited as long as she would have needed. But she didn't. She didn't tell him anything. She just left. At first Troy had thought about following her but if she left already, she probably had a reason.

Then he had been angry towards her. Angry for leaving little Julie just to him. Angry for giving him all of this responsibility out of the blue. Angry that she just walked away from his family like that.

After that came the sadness and the feeling of emptiness. He was sad that she didn't tell him what she was up to; he was devastated that she had left without a goodbye; he was crestfallen that Julie had to grow up without a mother, but he was hurting as his heart had gone with her and now, his chest was just plain empty.

And it still was. He had to admit it that Sarah didn't feel like Gabriella had. She didn't even come close.

He never had that warm feeling that started from his toes and went up to his chest which started to beat twice as fast when she kissed him.

He never felt warm over his body when she smiled at him.

He never felt this growing feeling of warmth towards Sarah like he had for Gabriella. It had started to live from the very first moment he laid his eyes on Gabriella on that Teen Party and though he didn't want to admit it, he still felt it when he even thought about her. She still had his heart and it hurt. It hurt, because he had nothing in return.

Not a day passed that Troy didn't doubt his decision to leave Albuquerque. Not a day passed without him berating himself for changing his name when he was a pro basketball player. Not a day passed when Troy didn't hate himself for making it hard for her to find him. Because in his heart, he wanted to be found.

But then again, he didn't know if she was even looking. Maybe she left because she found another love. Maybe she thought that the child was a weight she had to carry around and it was slowing her developing down.

Troy felt moronic even to think about it. Those two years when Gabriella had been around her daughter, she had treated her like the most precious jewel in the world and Troy knew it. He also didn't doubt that she loved him, because she had said it so many times and every time she did say it, Troy felt truly happy.

He pressed his head more into his pillow and willed himself to sleep, but the sleep didn't come. So his mind drifted back to Gabriella like it often did while his mind wasn't preoccupied.

He thought back to the night before she left. He had walked onto her crying, he remembered that clearly.

"What's wrong love?" he had asked, as he sat next to her. Gabriella leant into him and cried into his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Gabriella had answered, her voice shaking just a bit. "Troy, I love you, you know that right? Don't ever doubt that I won't love you anymore. I always will."

He had felt slightly bewildered about it, but had whispered back anyways, "I know, Gaby. I love you too, more than anything in the world. Well, maybe except Julie, but the two of you can share the most loved title."

Gabriella had smiled into his shoulder. He hadn't seen it, but he had felt it anyways. "This is how it should be for good. Julie is ours. She's half of you and half of me. If we love her, we love each other."

"'Course," he answered, his mind a bit foggy as his fiancée wasn't making that much sense right now. "We'll just hope she gets the basketball side of me and knowledge half from you, because if it's other way around…"

"Poor kid," they ended together and Gabriella though, she was still crying ,chuckled, "Troy, I love you more than I'll ever love another guy, remember that."

"I will," Troy promised, "Now would you tell me why you're crying?"

"Hormones," she had answered, "PMS."

She'd lied. He knew that now. But back then he had just smiled and held her until they heard Julie crying, which signaled that she's awake. The next morning, Gabriella was gone.

He quietly rose from his bed and made it to their family safe where he held everything Julie brought home for school and everything else that reminded him family. It was also filled with pictures about Gabrielle and himself. It also held that piece of paper that screwed up his life.

"Dear Troy,"

"I can not stay with you and Julie anymore. I just have to go and I can't explain why. Please don't try to find me, because it's something I have to face on my own. Take care of Julie and if I never come back, tell her about me when she's ready. It's the only thing I can ask from you, since I'm doing this to you.

That Teen Party was the best thing that ever happened to me – You were the best thing that ever happened to me. I never wanted to hurt you, but if I would have told you, it'd hurt both of us even more than it's hurting us now.

Maybe one day you'll understand and forgive me."

"Love Always, Gabriella."

Tears started to appear in Troy's eyes as he reread the letter again and again. He had read it at least thousands of times and the lines were carved into his mind. It didn't make any sense to him. Why would she leave like that? Why would she leave behind everybody she loved?

"Daddy?"

Troy spun around so quickly that a tornado would be jealous. He quickly put back the letter and closed the safe. He then turned to face the small girl in the doorway once again.

"Angel, why aren't you sleeping?"

" I couldn't sleep," Max answered shuffling her feet, "I wanted to say I'm sorry for snapping like you the way I did downstairs. I shouldn't have gone off like that and I'm truly sorry."

Just now did Max see tears in her father's eyes, but he didn't choose to comment. Troy smiled at her and said,

"Come on, I'll walk you to your room and tuck you in again."

Max nodded and the pair made their way to her room. She climbed under the blanket and Troy made sure she was all tucked in. He then closed his eyes.

"Julie, you deserve to know about your mother. You really do," he sighed, "It's just that I'm not very ready to talk about her out in the open. Actually it's been years since I talked to anybody about her."

"Aunt Taylor?" Julie offered, "Or Aunt Sharpay and Uncle Ryan? The three of them always smile fondly when I try to talk about my mum, but they always tell me that it's your story to tell."

"Yes, well," Troy nodded, "I'm not going to tell you a lot, but I'm going to tell you something about your mum…"

"Anything," Max breathed out, her face lit with anticipation.

"Your mother was an amazing woman. She had a beautiful singing voice, something similar to yours."

"I don't have a beautiful voice," Max said. Troy smiled, "That's what your mum said. She even had the same kind of stage fright you get. You know about people staring at you? Well she had the same thing, but she overcame it. She was strong woman and even Sharpay respected her."

"What do you mean **even** Sharpay? Aunt Sharpay is nice."

"Well, she wasn't that nice back then. To tell you a secret, she had a slight crush on me and your mum and she had quite some word exchanges."

Max smiled.

"Don't ever think that your mother didn't love you. For her, you were the reason to live; you are the only thing the two of us loved more than each other."

"So you loved her a lot?" Max asked, biting her lip as a single tear escaped her eyes.

"I loved your mother more than I loved anything else in the world. If she would have asked I would have stopped playing basketball, I would have run to the end of the world just to get her something she wanted. She always made me feel all fuzzy in he inside and when she was around it was like everything could go wrong and the two of us would still be happy."

Troy sighed as he gently wiped away the tear that was rolling down her daughter's cheek. "Don't cry, love."

"Do you…" Max coughed as her voice was a few octaves higher than usual, before he tried again, "Do you love Sarah that way."

Troy found himself looking into the sincere brown eyes of his daughter and then he shook his head. "I don't think I'll ever love anyone as deeply as I loved your mother. She might have hurt me, but I'll always love her."

For a moment the father/daughter duo just sat there doing nothing. "Can I see some pictures some day?"

"Pictures?" Troy asked with a cough.

"Don't play dumb," Max scoffed, "I know you keep them in the safe you were looking at ten minutes ago. It's just that I never actually had a picture of mum and…" "I'll give you some," Troy answered with a tiny hint of smile, "It's about time you learnt where are your beauty comes from… Certainly not from me. But I'll give them to you when I get back from the business trip. The owner of my team is having negotiations about selling the team and I have to be there."

"What? For how long?"

"Probably two weeks," Troy said, feeling uncomfortable.

"Two weeks?!? You can't leave me alone with all this evil for two weeks!"

"All this evil? Besides Sarah is here with you…"

"Exactly – All this evil!" Max cried out, "Please, daddy, take me along!"

"I can't," Troy answered, "Maybe you can stay over at your friend's house? Bill for example?"

"Nope, Bill went to visit his grandmother in the countryside."

"Karen?"

"Out of town… but… What's the time?"

"It's 11pm, why?"

Max jumped out of bed and grabbed her cell phone, "Here goes nothing."

"Who're you calling? Don't you think your friends would be in bed by now?" Max only shrugged in response.

"Calling… Callin… Hey! Please tell me I didn't just wake you up."

"Good. Listen I know that I've only known you for a short time, but you said you were bored out of your wits and well, my dad is going for a business trip for two weeks and he's leaving me alone with…"

"Yeah you guessed it, that blonde screecher."

"Max!"

Max put a hand on the receiver and said, "Hey, you called me Max – Wohoo! By the way, I didn't call her that. I just repeated what she said on the other side."

She then continued, "So I was wondering if I could…"

"Really?"

"Haha, thought so. So I'm allowed to bunk in just until dad gets back?"

"Well if I had to choose between you and the blonde screecher [Hand on the receiver as she said to Troy – her words, not mine the choice is not that difficult."

"Thanks and I'll pay you back for that vase one day!"

She hung up and beamed at his dad, "I got a place to stay for two weeks."

Troy frowned, "Who did you call?"

"Ms. Black," Max answered, "She was fine with it. She said that having the whole house to herself was starting to creep her out anyways."

"Ms. Black, that's the woman you stayed with last night?"

Max nodded, "She's awesome. She has so much videos and a huge fireplace. It's really warm in front of it – trust me I know. I dried there last night, because she made me. She cooks bacon and eggs just right and she just as bad as I am in studying a map."

"Uh, I'm not sure about this and what about that vase?"

"I broke one of her expensive vase and she has me helping with groceries and cooking in return. Sarah pretty much sold me out."

When her dad didn't respond, she continued, "If you want I can introduce the two of you tomorrow, so you could judge it yourself."

"I can't," Troy answered, "The plane leaves 8am."

"Already?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I just got the announcement and…"

"Dad," Max interrupted, "It's alright. You have an unpredictable job."

Troy nodded and rose, "I think it's alright for you to stay with that lady, but I'll call every night to check on you."

"Alright," Max said with a nod and with a last smile to his daughter Troy Bolton left the room, feeling just a tiny bit lighter than he had when he entered the room. Inside the room Julie Maxine Bolton hit her head against the wall silently, because she hadn't even asked her mother's name or what she did to hurt her dad.

Still soon enough she fell asleep. In the other room Troy Bolton did the same, his dreams filled with a certain girl with chocolate eyes and dark brown, almost black, hair and it certainly wasn't his daughter.

XxXxXxXxXx

A/N – I only survive long enough to write more thanks to your reviews. If I starve I can't write :P


	3. Chapter Three

**Chapter 3**

"What do you mean you're going away for two weeks?"

Max opened her eyes with a snap and looked around. She was in her room, alone. Then the events from last night came up and she quickly got changed and hurried downstairs.

"Yes, I'm going away for t-w-o w-e-e-k-s."

Max couldn't help but snort in the doorway. "Do you have to have everybody spell things out for you?"

"Julie…"

"Sorry daddy, it's just funny that someone spells stuff out for her every day." Max said, looking at Sarah, who was standing in the doorway, looking as mad as she could get.

"Every day?" Troy asked as Max gestured for him to bow. He did so and she fixed up his tie.

"Yup," she said, "Yesterday Ms. Black had to spell something out for her."

"You've met that woman?" Troy asked, turning to Sarah, who nodded. "How was she?"

"Classy, well mannered and just strict enough for me," Sarah said, gleeful to have some useful information [It didn't happen often

"Oh. Good."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to stay at her house for two weeks," Max answered, "Reminds me, I have to take some spare clothing."

"Why are you going to her place? Wouldn't she feel better coming over here?" Sarah automatically asked.

"That'd be a problem, since she doesn't have much better opinion of you than I do. Dad can give you a good phrase which she uses about you," Max said, staring Sarah, "I'll just go get some spare clothes and then you can drop me off at her place dad, before you go."

"Max, it's 7am, I don't believe she'll be awake."

"True," Max agreed, "I'll take my I-pod so I'd have something to do while I wait for a normal time."

Ten minutes later, Troy was hugging her daughter for good-bye. "As soon as there is any kind of trouble, call me, alright?"

"Yes, dad," Max said, "I'll be fine. I trust her… she's just a trustworthy type."

"Sometime's the trustworthy type is the most dangerous. I thought you read Harry Potter!"

Max laughed, "I'll be fine dad. Now hurry up, you'll miss the plane."Troy hugged her once more before he climbed back into the car, waved to her and drove towards the airport.

Max dug in her bag and pulled out her I-pod and she put on the headphones and sat on the bench in front of Gabriella's house. She started to hum alongside with a song, when somebody put their hands on her shoulders. She jump up and when she found herself face-to-face [Not exactly this time, since Gabriella is longer than her Gabriella, she sighed. She took off the headphones and asked,

"Do you have no other purpose in life than make me jump out of my skin every morning?"

The woman laughed, "Why are you out here anyways?"

"Thought you'd be sleeping," Max said. "Dad left already and I didn't want to be alone with the blond screecher. Great name by the way, dad just loved that."

Gabriella laughed, "You told him that I called his fiancée that?"

"Nah, but he heard me repeat it and I had to defend myself."

"Is this all you took?" Gabriella asked as Max picked up her backpack.

"Yup, but you'd be surprised how good I am at packing. I can store a whole shelf full of clothes into a bag like this."

"I'm sure you can," Gabriella said, stifling a yawn. "You can drop your stuff into the bedroom against mine. Unless you want to sleep in the armchair for two weeks."

"No thank you," Max answered climbing the stairs. She then turned around, "Gabriella, are you really okay with me being here? I mean I could stay at Aunt Taylor's probably."

"It's fine with me," Gabriella said, "Honestly! Being alone in the house is driving me batty."

"Batty?"

"Crazy, nuts, whatever," Gabriella answered, grinning. "Besides I need someone to tell me where the shop is."

Max laughed and hurried upstairs, where she placed her bag onto the bed and then she hurried back down.

They had breakfast, after which they watched an episode of "Charmed." Then they went outside for a walk around the place.

"So about the blond screecher," Gabriella started, "I've been wondering what happened to your… well…"

"Mum?" Max asked, "I have no idea. Dad doesn't like to talk about her. But last night," she grinned so widely that Gabriella had to grin along [Why, don't ask me "He told me that she was his first true love and he'll probably never find another woman who he'd be able to love as much as he loved my mum."

"He also told me that my mum was a great singer and I got my beauty from her and that the two of them loved me more than they loved each other and well, that's about it," she shrugged, "I know it doesn't sound that much, but he never wanted to talk about Mum before. Yesterday I found him staring at a piece of paper and that's probably why he talked to me."

They walked a moment in silence, before Gabrielle asked, "Why did you sound sad?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you sounded a bit sad while you talked about your mum and I was wondering."

Max hit a small rock with her leg and it flew a good few meters. "It's just that I'm kind of bugged about the way dad talks about mum in past tense. I'm afraid that she died and he can't just find a way to tell me."

"My dad died when I was four," Gabriella suddenly said, "My mum had to move when it happened and since then we moved rather lot… Well the point is that she didn't want to talk about my father either. She later told me she didn't do it because it brought up old memories and pain. But she told me everything eventually. It just might take some time with your dad."

"I don't know what I want," Max said, with a deep sigh, "I'm just so confused about everything about dad. He said he won't ever love Sarah the way he loved mum, not even close, and yet they want to get married… why?"

"When I got married it wasn't true love either," Gabriella admitted as they entered the park. "Orlando was my best friend. I could rely on him and I could trust him with everything. I needed that then, so when he proposed, I accepted. He made me feel safe. Though remember my fiancée?"

"The man, who ran away with your daughter?" Max asked, hitting another rock.

"Yeah," Gaby said. The two of them sat down on one of the empty park benches. "I really loved him. He was always the only man for me and he still is and I believe he always will be." Unconsciously her hand went to rest on something few inches below her collarbone.

"Everything is so difficult isn't it? With us and our families?"

Gabriella nodded.

"I'll do you a deal. The two of us are going to refrain ourselves from talking about anything that relates to the mess we call our family lives."

Gabriella laughed, "Where do you come up with those ideas?"

Max pointed onto her forehead, "Come on, accept."

"Sure, we can try. Though I'm giving no promises I won't think of the 'Issues'."

"Good enough."

XxXxXxXxXx

The two weeks weren't really that long now that Max thought about it. True to their words, they hadn't brought up any subjects about their personal lives or families, but that didn't mean they didn't have anything to talk about.

They talked about where Gabriella lived and what she was up to before moving to L.A. They talked about school. They talked about movies… Actually they talked a lot and that's what she loved about Gabriella. Unlike dad, she could talk to her about boys and stuff like that and it felt completely comfortable.

The big issue had been three days after Max came to spend the two weeks.

It was an early afternoon when Max had come running down the stairs. She looked panicking and as soon as she saw Gabriella, she rushed over, completely speechless.

"I'm… I'm bleeding!"

"What? Where?" Gabriella had asked, completely concerned. "I don't see any cuts. What happened?"

"It's not in a visible place," the girl had said, two big red blotches appearing on her cheeks.

"What do you mean… Wait? You mean you're having your periods?"

"My what?" Max had asked, "All I know is that I'm bleeding in places where you're not supposed to bleed!"

"It's normal," Gabriella had told her, "but first, we got to give you something to use."

She had hurried to her own bedroom and had emerged with a pink package full of little flat pink packages.

"What do I do with these?"

"Don't they teach you this kind of stuff in school?" Gabriella had asked, obviously not very comfortable in this situation either. When Max shook her head, she had started to explain.

"So they're like diapers?"

"Exactly! Well, not exactly, but they have the same principal. Go put one on and I'll explain you other… stuff, when you come out."

When she had come out, she had looked rather red from her face. "Give me a moment," she had said, as she scurried past her, went through her bag and went back into the bathroom.

"Hold them under the cold water a bit. I'll put them into the washer later." Gabriella had called through the door.

Three minutes later Max had come out from the bathroom. "This can't be normal, can it?"

"Come on, let's go sit down somewhere. This is going to be a long conversation."

**some time passes**

"EVERY MONTH!"

"Well, yes, it's what needs to happen for women to get pregnant you see…"

**more time passes**

"I'm going to make dad buy you a huge chocolate," Max said, once she had gotten the whole concept of PMS.

"What for?"

"Try to imagine me and my dad having this conversation? I'd die and he'd do so a second after me."

Gabriella had thrown her head back and laughed in the way that had made Max feel better already, before she had said, "Don't worry you can still have the birds and bees story."

"Oh no."

"Oh yes," Gabriella had nodded, her eyes glinting, "Those conversations are one of the most embarrassing ones the kid can have with her or his parents."

"Perfect," Max had said, "I'm going to get a temperature then. Being so red too long in a row has to affect it somehow."

"Don't worry, you'll have a good whole year before that speech," Gabriella had comforted her.

Now the two weeks max got to spend with her were almost over. Luckily her periods had lasted just three days, but she still had managed to do a good mess at least once. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to be here with Gabriella instead of home with the blond screecher.

"Dad said that he'll pick me up tomorrow for lunch," Max said as she hung up the phone.

"Oh no," Gabriella answered, "I got to be somewhere tomorrow morning. I'll leave the door keys to you and when you leave you'll lock the door and hide the keys somewhere."

"Wait, where do you have to go?" Max asked.

"The lab where I'll start working on the 1st," she said, "I have to go through my equipment and tools."

"What about my dad? I wanted to introduce the two of you!" Max exclaimed.

"Sorry, girl, but I really can't postpone the meeting," Gabriella said with a slight tint of regret. "I'm sure we'll meet another time?"

"My birthday!"

Gabriella looked at her.

"I'm having my birthday in nine days in the club down the street. The karaoke bar. Dad reserved it for my birthday. All my friends are coming and Aunt Taylor and dad's friends. You'll come won't you?"

"Your birthday is held on 24th then?"

"Yes," Max said, nodding. Not knowing that Gabriella's daughter had her birthday on the 25th and that's why she had asked it over.

"So, the two of us have our last day together," Gabriella started, "Any ideas?"

"Do you play basketball then or not?" Max asked.

"Out of the blue like that?" Gabrielle asked, "I mean I played a long time ago and even then I was barely average."

"Come shoot some hoops with me?"

"You're going to ask a 33 year old woman to play hoops with you?" Gabrielle asked, laughing, "You sure it won't damage your reputation?"

"I've got a kick ass reputation," Max declared, "Besides you're like another aunt or maybe godmother to me. Got to have lots of those, since…"

"Ehem… weekend is still lasting."

"True," Max said with a small smile, "So come on. Just a bit? You can't be all awful."

And she wasn't. About 2/3 of her shoots actually went in.

When they finally made it back to her house, it was already past eight.

"I'm going to take a shower," Max declared.

"Too late," Gabriella put in, locking the door after herself. Max groaned and said through the door, "For a rich woman you could at least have two bathrooms!"

"It's supposed to be a cottage!" Gabriella yelled back.

"THIS IS A COTTAGE? WHERE DO THEY LIVE THEN? A MANOR?"

"Something like that," Gabriella yelled through the splashes of water, "I won't take long. You can fix us up with something to eat while I'm showering."

Since she didn't have anything else to do anyways, she did as she recommended so by the time the shower was free, Max had pretty much started everything and while she was showering, Gabriella finished the cooking. They ate in the living room and when Max sat down, she was surprised to find a big chess set opened up.

"You know how to play?" Gabriella asked.

"Not very well, but I've seen dad play," she answered, as she ate a bit from her plate, eyeing the big pieces in the middle of the dining table.

"I'll play you one. Since you beat me bad in basket ball I have to make the loss up with something. I'm a sore loser, you know?"

Max nodded. She'd wanted to study how to play for some time, but her dad was often too busy, Bill didn't know how to play either and Karen was too busy chatting about make up to talk about actual game. She was still a good friend, but she didn't do sports and was a bit too much into herself.

"So these are the Pawns…"

-106 minutes later-

"3:1, not that bad," Gabriella said as they finished their fourth game.

"Yeah, not that bad."

"I'm serious. I've been playing for years. Orlando loved chess and we made it almost a daily thing," Gabriella explained.

"So do you love Orlando?" She pointed to the wall clock which showed 12pm.

"You're nosy about love you know that?" Gabriella said, smiling. Max only shrugged, so Gabriella answered, "I did love him, but it wasn't the kind of love you have that takes your breath away and sweeps you off your feet. It was a different kind of love that comes after a while."

"So when you're made to choose between Orlando and that fiancée of yours…?"

"I'd take my family," she answered without a doubt, "Now come on, it's time for you to get to bed."

"Already?" Max whined.

"Max!"

"Alright, I'm going…" She suddenly stops. "You know, I've only taken commands like that from dad before…"

"Max!"

"I'm already upstairs," She said, running. Gabriella followed, laughing loudly. She entered Max's room as she climbed into bed.

"Sleep tight."

"Gabriella, wait," Max called, "Come here, talk to me."

"Talk to you?"

"Well yeah, tell me a story."

"A story?"

"Are you as thick as the blond screecher?"

"No, it's just I'm starting to doubt weather you're fourteen or five."

"Does it matter?" Max asked, "Pleaseeee. I've been a good girl haven't I? I deserve a good story."

"Like what? Cinderella?"

"Uh, no. Not that kind of story. Something more… real. More grownup."

"You know," Gabriella said, "I might just have a story for you, but you must promise you won't say anything before I finish or I'll stop speaking, alright?"

Max nodded enthusiastically.

"It was winter," Gabriella started, "Winter holidays to be exact. A girl named Ella was sitting on a couch and reading a book, when her mother walked in. She reminded her of a Teen New year's Party which was taking place downstairs."

"The shy girl took her book and moved downstairs with it, to please her mother and then her life changed. You see, it was a karaoke bar down there and that girl was pretty much forced to sing with a complete stranger."

"The boy started to sing and she found his voice entrancing, but still, the girl suffered under serious case of nerves. Every time somebody stared at her, she found herself getting more nervous and on the stage… a lot of people were watching her."

Max took her pillow and adjusted it and turned herself around to be close to Gabriella. Her pillow was under her chin.

"But then she sang and the boy, who had been ready to leave, turned around and sang as well. They sang and they sang good, I might say. When they song ended they introduced themselves. Michael Colton was the boy's name."

"They went outside together, switched phone numbers and then went their separate ways, not knowing that Ella was being transferred to the school Michael was attending."

"They recognized each other, because Michael, not sure if the girl sitting four rows behind him and left was really the same girl, called her during class, landing both of them in detention with one of the most crazy teachers out there." Gabriella grinned.

"Michael played basketball and a big game was coming up, while he was remotely interested in Ella, the girl who was in her former school known as the 'freaky math girl' since she was very good in academics and lead the Schools decathlon team in her previous school."

"Anyways a girl named Maria, who was interested in Michael, figures out that since Ella has too much free time, she hangs out with Michael. That's why she 'Accidentally' slips a paper with Ella's grades and such onto the desk of Morgan, the captain of decathlon team in that high school."

"There's also a winter musical coming up, which two leads have almost every year been Maria and Marco, her brother. Though Ella and Michael both go there to listen and in the last moment Ella steps out and wants to join. Since she doesn't have a partner Michael reluctantly joins in but the crazy teacher, who runs the drama club tells them that time is money and since their late…"[Max was frowning

"The two of them notice a pianist, who dropped her notes, so they help her out. They see lyrics of a beautiful song and sing it together. The crazy teachers hears them and gives them the call back."

"Maria, finding out goes ballistic and does her best to move the dates of the big basketball game and the decathlon onto the same day as the call backs." [Max uses a not so nice word

"At the same time Michael's teammates co work with Ella's teammates since they think that they falling in love will mess up any chances they have for winning. They almost succeed as they make Michael say stuff in front of a camera and then show it to Ella, who believes what she saw."

"Luckily with the help of their teammates who understood that because of their argue, the couple is more defocused than an headless chickens, the two of them get back together and they also manage to delay both of the competitions- decathlon by mixing a stanching potion and the basketball game by screwing up the wires of the scoreboard."

"The couple gets to sing and they do the musical."

"They are quite happy for a while, just as friends, but as the two of them walk alongside the hallway getting ready for spring break, Michael suddenly takes their relationship to another level as he grabs Ella and they kiss. Needless to say that they spent most of the spring break and time after that together." [Max was hugging her pillow

"Then came the summer vacation. Both of them, alongside with their teammates and schoolmates needed jobs and T… Michael managed to land them all some in the country club, which incidentally was owned by nobody else but Maria's and Marco's parents.

"Maria started to manipulate Michael, by having his parents give him promotions, better paycheck and even talk the board of directors for easier place into the college, with full scholarship of course."

"In return, she got to drag Michael away from his friends and keep him from fulfilling the promises he made to Ella. After three missed dates, two lousy apologies and the cancelation of the talent show's act they were all going to do together, Ella had enough and she quit her job in the country club.

[Noo!"

"Michael was becoming distant from his friends and teammates and treated them like they were lower than him. He hung out with the rich and important and his friends were left behind. Finally, after Ella confronted her before leaving the country club, he understood that he was being selfish and he changed."

"Marco, who was mad at Maria, who switched him out for Michael, helped the team to make a good act and the last moment, he managed to get Michael and Ella onto the stage together."

[Yesss!

"Ella's and Michael's relationship had been strained. Every time they got some privacy something interrupted them. They even got two warnings from their boss, who found them swimming in the pool after hours and having a picnic on the golf course."

"As you can guess they made up and moved onto their next year as a stronger couple than before."

"Maria came to her senses… kind of and the next year was rather calm to be compared to the previous one. There was of course the prom."

"But our story continues from this moment when Ella told Michael that she was pregnant. Michael gave up his scholarship to a good school and Ella did the same. They went to a nearby college and Ella dropped out a bit before the end of the semester. Michael took an extra job and they managed fine really."

"Then they had this beautiful baby girl," she said with a slight smile. "Michael had proposed to Ella about when she was three months along, but they hadn't gotten married yet. Well they didn't get married for the time their baby girl got one."

"At that day, Ella found out about horrible news. From her last examination it was revealed that she had leukemia."

**[What?!?** [_You promised…_ [**Alright…  
**  
"She couldn't have told to her fiancée, who would have done anything to keep her safe, which means risking his own life. But if it didn't work out? Who'd take care of their little girl?" 

[…

"For a good couple of months, Ella was closely examined. It seemed that she had gotten it from her father and there was a chance that her daughter had the disease. Secretly, Ella had her daughter thoroughly examined and she was relieved to know that the gene wasn't passed onto her. Still, it left her to be worried about herself."

"She only had one chance, to return to her homeland and try the bone marrow from her relatives, since she couldn't afford to fly them all over to America."

"She knew that there was a pretty big chance that the treatment would take months, years even and there was a good chance that she won't make it at all."

[Max was gripping her pillow and holding it very close to herself and her eyes seemed a bit watery."

"So one day she left her home, leaving just a note to the love of her life. She hoped he would understand and wouldn't come after her. He didn't come."

"Ella found herself a match in her cousin, who willingly gave his bone marrow and after about a year of healing, she returned to her home in America. But she arrived into an empty house. Her family was gone."

"She couldn't find them anywhere and soon she gave up searching and went to a college nearby. She met a nice guy there, who was a good influence for her and gave her that security she needed. They got married four years later and two years after that…"

"Orlando died," Max ended for her. "You… you had leukemia?"

Gabriella wiped away a tear or two and nodded, "I got better though, but there are lots who don't because the medicine isn't developed enough."

"That's why you donated some of your money to it?"

Gabriella nodded and before she could react, Max had thrown herself at her and was hugging her tightly. Gabriella hugged her back and Max whispered, "When you find that guy who moved away introduce him to me. I'll beat him up for you."

Gabriella laughed slightly, before she placed the girl back into her bed, "Go to sleep alright?"

"I will," Max answered, yawning. "Your life would make a good movie."

Gabriella smiled as she flicked off the light in the room and headed for her own bedroom, her thoughts on Troy. Had he moved far away? Maybe even onto the continent? How is her little girl doing?

The last thought when she fell asleep wasn't about those two though. The thought was that she still didn't know Max's last name, did she?

XxXxXxXxXx

A/N – Gimme reviews ! You know, I didn't sleep for a minute when I wrote this. I was up from 8pm to 7am just writing these four chapters. And I'm not going to stop now. ) Don't you think I deserve some reviews?


	4. Chapter Four

**Chapter 4**

Julie Maxine Bolton was clicking through random channels on the TV when she heard a car horn outside. She grinned and grabbed the keys from the table. She turned off the TV and hurried outside to see his dad waiting in the car. She waved at him before she locked down the door and hurried behind the house for a moment. She returned a minute later and hurried to the car.

"Hey, dad," she said, leaning over and kissing his cheek, "How was the business?"

Troy looked at her daughter. "Same old, same old. We have a new owner now. G…something. So tell me, what you did behind the house?"

"Hid the keys," Max answered, "She had to leave early today and she made me promise to hide the keys when we leave."

"She gave you the house keys?" Troy asked and eyebrows rose.

"Yes? So? You think I'm not trustworthy enough?"

"No, not that. Of course not that," he quickly amended, "It's just that… how were your two weeks in here?"

"Amazing," Max said, "She's a great cook, she's fun, she doesn't hog the shower, she completely understands everything I go through and she plays hoops. She even promised to teach me how to play chess."

As Troy pulled off, he asked, "What do you mean understands everything?"

"You know, stuff I can't talk to you about. Boys and dating and kissing and periods…"

"Periods?" Troy croaked out. "You're having your periods?"

"Well yeah. That reminds me you have to buy me those Maxis thingies with wings, preferably with at least absorbing level of four or higher."

"How do you…?" Troy blinked.

"Ms. Black told me. I had my first period in her house. She talked about them with me, because she imagined that you and I would have more difficulties talking about that."

"Yes, well, she's right about that," Troy said with a cough, "You don't need to talk about them then?"

"Nope, I pretty much know everything."

Troy smiled, "You're a lot like your mum, you know? She knew almost everything as well, at least in my eyes. Though, I have to buy flowers to that Ms. Black now. I don't think I would have made it out alive for that talk. I mean I KNOW what periods are, but…"

"Don't fret about it," Max said dismissively, "You can talk to me about birds and bees."

The car jerked a bit as Troy stepped on the wrong pedal all of the sudden, "Birds and bees?" he asked, his voice slow and low, "You want to hear about birds and bees?"

"Not right now, dad," Max said, "But you'll need to tell me sometimes."

"Well yes…" Troy started, driving normally again, "When you're old enough to know about that subject. A College student preferably."

"Is that when you learnt about Birds or Bees? Can't be right, because I'm already fourteen and…"

Troy coughed even more, "This is not a subject to talk about while I'm driving, really."

Max shrugged, "I can do the math by myself you know."

"Of course I know," her father answered as they stopped in front of their house. He stopped the car and looked at his teenage daughter. "I think you're old enough to understand what I'm going to say to you right now."

Max unbuckled her seatbelt, but didn't budge from her seat. "Spill."

Troy took a deep breath, "I don't think I love Sarah."

"…"

"Took you long enough!" Max snapped, "She's the bloody devil in disguise."

"Max, no such language in my car," Troy warned, before he sighed, "Other than that, I think you might be right. She's planning weddings in the size of a rock concert and I don't want that. I don't want thousands of guests and hundreds of caterers and I don't want her either."

Max was beaming so happily that she would have glowed in dark. "So you're breaking up with her?"

"Yes, I believe so. I'll just tell her that the weddings are to be postponed and maybe during your birthday…?"

"It's eight days away," Max cried out, "Why couldn't you just walk into the house, say that she has to take her few belongings and get the hell out!"

"Max!"

"Sorry, daddy."

"I have to give her some time to find a new place. I just can't kick her out like that," Troy snapped his fingers, "Though I'd rather enjoy that…"

"So what changed?" Max asked, interested, "Three weeks ago or so, you were completely sure you would get married."

Troy smiled slightly and withdrew his phone. "I got an interesting message from an unknown number about a week and a half ago. Listen."

_"You little brat,"_ Max instantly knew the voice of Sarah, even though it was slightly quieter than usual because of the phone, "_Because of you I had to spend an hour trotting around in the rain last night! You get your stupid little head home right now! Last night I fell and broke a nail…"_

"That's what she said when I called home after I ran away," Max said, blinking. "Who sent it to you?"

"I think it was the woman you've been staying with," Troy answered, "Yet another reason for me to thank her. Max you should have told me."

Max folded her arms across her chest and stared at her father, "I did, remember? You just said I was making it up because I was afraid of new things and changes."

Troy had the decency to look and feel stupid as he answered, "I'm sorry, Angel. I should have believed you when you told those things, but… You've been saying crazy things about my last girlfriends. Like once you told me that Claire tried to hang you, while she was braiding your hair."

Max shrugged and looked out of the window, "If I had to choose between Claire and the blond Screecher, I'd choose Claire, 100 sure… Oh, um, I'm sorry for using that name. I know you don't like it."

Troy chuckled, "Actually after hearing this," he gestured to his phone, "I can see where the name comes from. Blond Screecher – I rather like it."

Max turned her eyes away from the window and looked at her father. He was smiling at her in the way Gabriella often did. That smile made her feel safe and encouraged. So she just had to smile slightly.

"When will you tell her that you're dumping her?" Max asked.

"Soon. Maybe today or tomorrow, but I have to let her down gently."

Max scrunched up her nose but chose not to comment. Troy smiled at her that one million dollar smile that made girls swoon and said, "I'll promise that she won't be around for your birthday even if I have to carry her out of the house."

"Come on," Troy said, "Now, let's go inside and act like everything is normal."

As soon as they entered, Sarah came hurrying down. She practically jumped at Troy.

"Honey, you're home! I've missed you so much, both of you!" Troy looked a bit bewildered and Max mouthed, _'She wants something.'_

"Troy, my dearest, I was wondering if we could hire several different bands for our wedding, since we need to have the guests entertained."

_'Told you,"_ Max mouthed to her father. Actually she was feeling sorry for him. It must be so hard to have a blond moronic moron stuck on you as soon as you entered the house.

"I'm going to go upstairs," Max said, "Phone up Bill and see if he is home."

"Alright Julie," her dad answered, gently prying Sarah's boney hand away from his neck.

Max hurried upstairs and took her iPod and phone and then she went for a walk. While in the middle of the street, she dialed Bill's number.

"Hey, what are you up to?" she cheerfully asked when he picked up.

"Meet me at our spot in ten?"

"Deal, See you!"

Ten minutes later found Max sitting on an isolated park bench, listening to her iPod. Suddenly someone put their hands on her eyes.

"Funny, Bill," She said turning around to face her grinning best mate. "Heyya."

"Hey," Bill answered, still smiling goofily, "So what have you been up to last few weeks?"

Max smiled as she started to retell everything that had happened leaving out some parts about the Screecher and her periods for example.

"Wow, she seems cool… for an adult," Bill said after Max had told him about Gabriella.

Max laughed, "Yeah, she does. Now what did you do on the country side."

"Not much," Bill shrugged, "We went swimming of course, had some fun herding the sheep and I got to ride a horse!"

Max smiled up at him. Yes up at him. Even though Max was tall for a fourteen year old [Big plus in basketball, Bill was taller than her and he'd probably grow even taller.

Bill was the one Max could talk about almost everything. He's the one who wasn't afraid about jumping into the mud and messing up his clothes. He's the one Max could call out to play basketball almost 24/7 and it didn't matter if it was sunny, cloudy or if it rained cats and dogs. He'd always come through.

The two of them spent the afternoon catching up and then headed for Bill's house to play videogames. After that Bill, who lived few blocks away from Max, walked her home. It was rather dark already and when they reached her doorway, Max turned around.

"Same time tomorrow?"

"Depends," Bill answered, "What are you offering?"

"Well… roller-skating and basketball," Max said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. Suddenly she noticed exactly how close Bill was standing and she was feeling rather warm. She started to say goodbye, hoping to get away before something weird happens, but it was too late.

Bill's lips were on hers. That was basically the only thought she had in her mind and for a few moments they just stood there lip locked. Then they started to move their lips and even that last thought was gone from Max's mind. Everything in her mind was a blur on that moment.

Suddenly Bill pulled away, bright red. He smiled some what dazedly and then quickly said good bye and practically ran away.

Max opened the door to her house and went in. She closed it after her and leaned against it, looking thoroughly shocked.

"What's wrong?" Troy, who had exited from the kitchen, asked.

"Nothing," Max answered. "I think I need to talk to somebody."

"I'm here for you," Troy assured her. She smiled a little and explained that it was a woman thing and she went for a walk. She didn't have any destination in mind as she just wondered down the street. She was so deep in thoughts that she didn't notice someone walk towards her and they collided.

"Max?"

"Gabriella?" the girl asked with relief. "I'm sorry, I was thinking…"

"Max, what's wrong?"

"I think… I think that I'm having a panic attack," Max explained, "I need to talk to somebody or I'll burst."

Gabriella laughed, "Guy trouble?"

"How did you…?" Max asked, picking up a grocery bag from the trunk of her car. Gabriella locked it down and the two of them walked into the porch.

"I'll get the keys," Max answered and she ran behind the house and returned with the house key. Max unlocked the door and Gabriella carried the bag inside. She placed it onto the counter and Max took a seat next to it.

"Spill," said Gabriella, who was starting to put things away into the cupboards.

"I need to talk about boys and kissing," Max said her hands in front of her face.

"We talked about that, didn't we?"

"Well, I need to talk about a certain boy and a certain kiss," Max said looking up at her, hoping that she didn't have to elaborate more.

"Oh, your first kiss?" Gabriella asked. Max nodded. "That boy, Bill?" Max looked up hurriedly to see Gabriella smiling at her. She nodded. "And now you're worried that it might ruin your friendship."

She nodded again, "How do you…?"

"Experience," Gabriella answered with a smile. "The kiss, did you like it?"

Max blushed and found sudden interest in the tiles on the kitchen counter.

"I'll take that as a yes," Gabriella continued, her smile growing, "What happened after the kiss?"

"He smiled, said goodbye and ran away… Why did he run away? Maybe I was horrible!"

"Hardly," Gaby answered taking two small cups of ice-cream out of the bag and she slid one of them to Max, who muttered a small thank you, before taking a spoon and digging in. "I think he was just scared about what happened and he felt awkward."

"You think?" Max asked, looking up at her again. She smiled and nodded in return and Max sighed with some relief.

"How did you feel after the kiss, then?" Gaby, who had finished putting away the food asked as she sat down against her and opened her own ice cream.

"I was stunned… really stunned and really tingly. And so warm. I thought I was in a sauna for a moment back there."

"So, what's the problem? You're obviously interested in the guy; you have lot in common and you are best friends. With a friendship like that it's a big chance that something comes out of it. Don't you read Harry Potter?"

Max snorted, "Yeah I've read it, but by the time Hermione and Ron got together they were seventeen and knew what they wanted. I'm just fourteen and I have no idea what's going on in my head."

"If Bill asked you to be his girlfriend, what would you answer?"

Max chocked on her spoonful of ice cream. "If he asks me to be his girlfriend," she gasped. "What if he does ask?!? What will I do?!?"

"First take a deep breath. If you say yes what would be the worst thing that could happen?"

Max was thoughtful for a moment, "We have a huge fight and me with dad's and mom's temper, would murder him and end up in jail."

Gaby blinked, "Okay not **that** bad one. A fight could happen. Then what? You'll break up as friends?"

"I don't know. I'm not even dating him, what am I supposed to know about breaking up with him," Max was sulking and jabbing her ice cream viciously.

"Risk," Gabriella answered, "I did and those years were the best ones in my life. Even if you don't hook up for life and live happily ever after… You'll have the fond memories."

Max nodded slowly, "Risk. I'm good at taking risks. It's like basketball when your ought to go from the right, but you risk and go left."

Gabriella laughed, "You reminded me of my ex fiancée with that speech. Basketball was what he did."

"Then he couldn't be all bad, right?" Max asked, "If I remind him?"

"He wasn't," Gabriella agreed.  
_  
"-Trrrrrrrrrrr- You are being phoned –Trrrrrrrrrrr-"  
_  
"My phone," Max said, digging it up from her pocket.

"Hey daddy," she said as she answered. "Uh I told you that I needed a woman to talk to. Who do you think I am with – the Blond Screecher?"

Gabriella smiled at her and Maxine grinned back. "Yes, I'll come home right away. No wait, I'll hop by Bill's before that, okay?"

"Mhmm…"

"Yeah, it's pretty important and no I'm not bothering her… I think, hold on," Max put her hand on the receiver and looked at Gabrielle, "Am I bothering you?"

"No," Gabrielle laughed. Max smiled and removed her hand from the receiver, "Nope, not bothering her. Not now anyways."

"Alright, bye."

Max hung up just as the phone rang again. She picked up and as soon as she did, she blushed,

"Oh, hey Bill."

Gabriella turned around, her hair flying around her and hitting her into the face. As it happened Max laughed into the phone.

"No nothing you said was funny, I'm completely following you," Max answered into the phone, "Something funny happened, that's all."

Gaby didn't try to move as she did her best to hear some of the words Bill was saying. It sounded like he was blabbing.

"Yeah, I liked it too," Max said quietly, but Gabriella heard it anyways and she snickered… in an adult fashion of course. Max gave her the evil eye, but because of the blush on her face, it wasn't that scary.

For a moment both of the girls were quiet listening to what Bill says and then…

"Girlfriend," Max breathed out, "I don't know."

Gabriella wasn't grinning anymore; instead she looked like an anxious kid.

"What if anything goes wrong, I mean…? Yeah, exactly."

**Moment of silence**

"Hyper pinky promise?"

Gabriella smiled and Max did so as well and then she answered, "Yes. My answer is yes."

A few moments later she said, "Okay, tomorrow. I can do that. Bye."

She hung up and stared the phone like it was about to bite her. "What did I do?"

"You just got yourself a boyfriend, Max," Gabriella answered, grinning.

"But… Oh god, I've got a boyfriend. Karen's going to hit the roof. Especially when she finds out about Bill."

"Why?"

"I think she has interest in Bill, because she keeps asking if he's seeing somebody. Don't get me wrong, Karen can be a good friend, but sometimes she's just too self-absorbed."

"Déjà vu," Gabriella muttered.

"Huh?"

"Never mind me," she said with a small smile, "Now what do you want for your birthday?"

Max grinned, "Only seven and half days away from being fourteen. You'll be on the party of course?"

Gabriella nodded, "I'll come."

"Good and you'll sing?"

"…"

"Oh no," Gabriella exclaimed, as the meaning hit her. "I don't sing anymore!"

"Please," Max begged, "As my birthday present? Just one tiny song. Just one. You don't have to sing any more than that. Just to get the karaoke going at the start. When two adults sing, then kids be more willing right?"

"Max, I don't…"

"Gaby, pleaaaseee!"

"Don't look me like that! Max…"

"Please, do this for me?"

"Fine!" Gabriella gave up, "One song and then I'm going to sit behind the bar and laugh over the rest of the singers."

"Thank you," Max called out, completely thrilled. "Thank you, thank you!"

"Yeah, well, don't make me regret this," Gabriella said, feeling that she had gotten herself into a good mess now.

"I wont," Max called out, "I got to go home and I have a … date… with Bill tomorrow, but I'll try to swing by some time… And thank you."

"Don't mention the singing…"

"I wasn't talking about the singing, but the recording you sent to dad," Max called from the hallway and then she left.

When she reached her home, she found herself seeing a very weird sight. On the lawn bunch of packages had been thrown and in the middle of them all stood a screaming Sarah.

Max started to laugh as she saw his father, looking more furious than ever, opening a window upstairs and throwing another bag down.

"Troy, honey, I didn't mean anything I said. I love you! Give me a second chance!"

"Take your stuff and get off my lawn!"

The venom in his voice made even Max stop laughing. She quietly sneaked past Sarah and slipped into the house.

"Daddy?" she called out. A few moments later a bit furious but grinning Troy Bolton entered the hallway.

"Yes, sweetie?"

Max grinned, "What are you doing?"

"I came to an understanding that she doesn't need any time getting her snobbish, greedy and not too mention stupid self out of my house alongside with all those "great plans" she had."

"Alright, what did she do to get you over the edge?" Max asked. Troy scowled and said,

"She insulted two of the most important women in my life after I heard her talk to someone about how she'll ship you to a boarding school. She could live in the gutter from now on if she wants to!"

Max blinked, "Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"Can I help to throw out her stuff?"

Troy threw his head back and laughed a real, deep throated laugh, "Sure, you can start with all those beauty products in the bathroom."

So the two of them found a good family activity. For the rest of the evening stuff was thrown out of the windows faster than they had been brought in. After a while they stopped since they had returned pretty much everything she owned in the house… Actually it wasn't that much.

It took about another hour of begging for forgiveness from Sarah, before her sister drove there with a big car and started to help her put away all her things. As her stuff had been collected Sarah trotted behind the door and yelled, "I'll come to that birthday party just in case you change your mind! YOU WILL CHANGE YOUR MIND!"

Then she sat into the car and drove away with her sister. Inside of the house, both father and daughter groaned.

"This is it," Troy said, "She's gone and I'm never bringing another woman here again."

"Don't be too hasty," Max said, "You might want to some day. Love can hide itself in weird places."

Troy laughed, "Since when do you know about love?"

"I don't, but that's what Ms. Black says. Besides I'm starting to believe her."

"You really like that woman?" Troy asked, looking at Max, who was picking up something from the ground.

"Yeah. I trust her almost as much as I trust Bill and that's saying something," Max answered, before she frowned, "Do you think the Screecher will show up for my party?"

"She might," her dad said with a smile, "But when she does, we'll get her kicked out like this." Snaps his fingers.

"Are you hungry?" Her dad asked.

"Nope, I ate something already," Max said dismissively. Then she got a brilliant idea.

"Daddy?" she tentatively asked.

"Yes, Angel?"

"Would you do me a favor?" Max asked, her eyes glittering with hope.

"Anything for you, baby," Troy said sitting down next to her on the couch, "What is it?"

"Well, I want you to sing at my party."

"…"

"Nooooooo," Troy's voice was steely, "I don't sing."

"Aunt Sharpay said you were one of the best male singers in the school," Max insisted, "Please, just one tiny song so the people would loosen up and go up there willingly."

"Julie, don't," her dad said, "I don't sing."

"I'm begging you," Julie said, "Just one song and I won't bother you again. Daddy please, you said you'd do anything for me."

Troy Bolton slid his hand through his hair. His mind reeling.

"Fine," he said and he couldn't believe that he agreed this. "But just one song. After that I'll sit in the bar and laugh over the other singers."

Max looked him weirdly.

"What?"

"Nothing, never mind… But thank you daddy. You're the best!"

She threw herself at him and he laughed as he hugged her. Why would he need another person in his life if he got his little Angel?

XxXxXxXxXx

A/N – I bet you all know what is going to happen ) Now, please give me reviews; that's what feeds me. If I die of hunger then who'd finish the story :O?


	5. Chapter Five

A/N – I'm sick, so I'm not sure how much I can write of this story or when it'll be posted. If it's really long time from now, I'm sorry. Sneezes

**Chapter 5 **

"Come here, Julie," Troy Bolton, former basketball star and the coach of the Lightning Bolts, called out.

"Can't you just call me Max?" her daughter asked as she made her way to the bar, behind which her father was standing. He only grinned at her request, before his face sobered. Max noticed that and asked,

"Dad, what's wrong?"

Troy looked into her brown eyes and smiled slightly. He was going to do this; he wasn't afraid of anything. He was just…scared. But he had to do this. She deserved it.

He took a deep breath and reached into his pocket. "I'm giving you your birthday present before the party starts," he explained as he pulled out just a tiny piece of paper, "I was going to give it to you for your fifteenth birthday but…"

The mystery was breathtaking as Troy opened her palm and put that piece of paper into it. She took a deep breath and read it.

"0-3-2-7-9-1?" Max asked, bewildered. She stared it for a moment, before asking, "What do I do with this?"

Troy chuckled at her facial expression. "It's the combination to the safe in my bedroom. The safe where I hold everything personal."

"You mean the tests and stuff I bring home from school?" Max asked.

"Yes, but there are other things in there. Things concerning your mother – pictures for example."

Max's facial expression changed in a split-second. When before that piece of paper had just been a piece of paper with numbers, then now… Now she looked at the paper like it had been made from gold.

"My party starts in thirty minutes," she said, distraught.

"Yeah, it does," Troy agreed.

"We've finished everything that needs to be done, right? Food, drinks, music, stuff like that."

"Yeah, all done," Troy said. "Now we have to wait until guests start to arrive."

Max nodded, still staring at the paper. "There are pictures of mom in there?"

"Mhmm," Troy answered, nodding. Suddenly Max's phone rang. She quickly picked it up.

"Oh, hey," she greeted the caller. "What? What do you mean, late?"

"Your work was supposed to start on the 1st of September, wasn't it?"

"…"

"Alright, but try to get here as soon as you can, okay?"

"Yeah, see you."

Max hung up and looked at her father, "Ms. Black," she answered and Troy nodded. He glanced at his watch "About 25 minutes to go – Do you have any ideas to spend the time?"

Max shrugged, before she smiled slightly, "I can tell you a sad story, if you want me to."

"Why a sad one?" Troy asked.

Max shrugged, "I liked it and it's not that sad at start. It's just the ending."

Troy shrugged, "Go ahead."

"Alright, but first you have to promise not to interrupt before I'm finished, okay?"

"Why?"

Max shrugged, "I was made to promise and it did good, because the questions got pretty much answered in the story later on."

"Fine, I promise."

Troy regretted that promise as he almost fell off the barstool, when his daughter started to tell him about Ella and Michael Colton. His face was full of disbelief when she described the summer after the year she had met Gabriella in such details. He almost fainted when she told him about how Michael found out about Ella's pregnancy [Max had wanted much more details the next morning and Gabriella had told her everything she wanted to know and then his hopes that either Sharpay or Ryan had told her the story were crushed.

Max told him that Ella had had leukemia and she had to leave town to find some match in her relatives. She told him that she had found one and it had been a long recovery. She told him that Ella had returned to the city she had lived in just to find her fiancée and her daughter gone. She told him about how she had looked for them, but soon given up.

Troy's heart was beating three times faster than normal and his breath was coming out in rapid intervals. Guilt kept washing over him and he thought he might cry.

"Max!"

Max stopped her story and looked towards the door where Bill stood with Karen and some of her classmates. She grinned and started to jump up when a hand stopped her. She turned around to face her dad.

"What's wrong?"

"Max, why didn't she tell him?" Was all that he got out, but Max didn't need the explanation. She had asked the same question from Gabriella the next day and she gave him the same answer she had given her.

"He was the perfect marrow match."

Then she jumped up and hurried to her friends, leaving Troy sit behind the bar, completely stunned.

"The perfect match," he repeated. If he had been the perfect match why had she left? Why hadn't she let him give her his bone marrow?

For a few minutes Troy wasn't able to think of the answer, but it came finally. There was always a chance that the donor could die on the operating table. Nowadays the chances were tiny, but fourteen years ago? Gabriella already thought she was going to die and if he had risked his life…

"DAMN!" Troy yelled. The kids in the room turned their heads to see Troy Bolton banging his head against the counter. After a few more hits, he stopped and hid his face into his hands. If he had always felt guilty about taking Julie and leaving, then now… it was unbearable.

Julie… Someone had to tell her that story, because the chances that she made it up were nonexistent. It couldn't have been Sharpay or Ryan, that's for sure. Julie knew too much details about well, everything and she also knew what had happened to Gabriella after she left.

There were two chances, either someone, who was very close to Gabriella after she started her new life, told her the story or it was…

He had to track her down. Not that he hadn't tried before, but then he had told himself that he didn't even want to find her, but now, now he did. He banged his head against the counter once again. How could things go so wrong. He loved her and yet he had left. What the bloody hell was he thinking?"

"Troy."

Troy jumped a good feet high on the table. He turned around to look at the face of concerned Sharpay.

"Are you alright?" she asked, "Max told me that you've gone crazy."

"Sharpay," he breathed out. She had told him that Gabriella was looking for her once. Maybe she knew…

"What?" Sharpay asked, confused.

"Do you know where Gabriella is?" he asked, hopeful look on his face.

The look of concern was wiped off Sharpay's face. Instead her face looked cold, "I haven't spoken to her after she moved. Remember, I told you she was looking for you and you…" Sharpay shook her head, "She was there when you told those things and I'd be surprised if she even continued to look for you. I couldn't bring myself to speak to you for weeks."

Troy threw his head back and groaned loudly, "I'm the biggest jerk in the world. I'm such a moron! I should have gone after her, note or no note!"

Sharpay didn't respond for a while, before she said, "You should forget her."

"I've never forgotten Gabriella," Troy answered, "And right now, I want to find her. I need to find her. I have to tell her that I know. I need to ask for forgiveness."

Sharpay shook her head, "You need to let go. She's well, unavailable."

"What?" Troy asked, his head snapping up, "You said you haven't spoken to her in years. How do you know she's taken? Who told you? Who is she with?"

"I haven't spoken to her and I don't know who she's with, but some years ago, I got a letter from her. Her career was doing great and well, she had gotten married."

"She's married," Troy said, his voice breaking. "She's married."

Sharpay waved to Ryan, her brother, who had entered.

"I helped Taylor and Chad with their baby. He's so adorable," Ryan said with a grin, before noticing their expressions. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Troy didn't respond. He was still ingesting the fact that Gabrielle, his Gabrielle, was married and probably had bunch of kids with his new husband. Wordlessly, he walked to the other side of the counter, which now was filled with Cokes and other drinks the kids could want and opened the locked cupboard.

"Troy…"

He didn't listen, he filled the glass with the white liquid and gulped it down.

"Alright, I think that I missed something," Ryan said, "What happened?"

"Gabriella," Sharpay said, "For some reason Troy wants to find her now."

Ryan seemed to have similar thoughts about the way the last conversation around Gabriella had ended as he scowled at Troy.

"Man, you're one of my best friends out here, but Gabriella," Ryan took a pause, "I honestly don't think you deserve her anymore."

"She told you why she left, didn't she?" Troy asked. When both Sharpay and Ryan went quiet, he nodded, "Why didn't you tell me? WHY?"

"She wanted to tell you," Ryan started, "So Sharpay called you and put you on the speaker and then you… You said those things about her and she ran out, crying. Sharpay went after her, while I hung up on you. You didn't let Sharpay say a thing in her defence. You didn't let her even explain!"

Sharpay took over, "I went after her and comforted her in the best ways I could… She stopped crying and on that moment, I think she stopped caring. She was just so determined in the end and she told me she was moving. Going out of state, away from Albuquerque, which was filled with bad memories for her."

"She made us promise not to tell you," Ryan said, glaring at the counter, "Because she was completely sure that you meant every word you said. We tried to tell her, but she didn't listen. The next time we heard about her was in that letter she sent to us years later."

"Troy, the two of us love you like another brother," Sharpay said, "But with the thing with Gabriella, you were a big jerk. She loved you. It was so damn oblivious, but when she left you were sure she ran away with another guy and was having his lovechild."

"If we had to take a side about you and her…" Ryan said, but left the sentence unfinished. On this moment, Troy hated himself more than he had ever hated anybody.

Still Sharpay moved next to him and hugged her. Troy hugged her back and a tear fell from his eye as he pulled away.

"I still need to find her. At least for Julie's sake. Both of them deserve to at least meet each other."

Sharpay smiled slightly and nodded, "If you think you can handle it, then go for it. Just don't get your expectations too high. She might not be that thrilled about seeing you again."

Troy looked at the opened bottle, but luckily Ryan got to it first. He quickly shoved it into the cupboard and locked it. Then he took the key and pocketed it.

"You don't want to mess up your daughter's party by getting yourself drunk, do you?"

Troy looked at Julie, who was chatting with her friends, while throwing a rather worried glance at Troy every now and then.

"You're right. But as soon as the party ends I'm going to ask her who told her the story about Ella and Michael and then I'll get myself wasted."

"Ella and Michael?"

"Yeah," Troy chuckled, "It went basically like this…"

He gave them a quick overview and when he ended Taylor and Chad, alongside with their one year old son, Jonathan, had joined them.

"So, who told it to her?" Sharpay asked, intrigued.

"No idea," Troy answered, "But who ever it was knew our life together pretty darn well."

"You don't think…" Taylor started. Gabriella had been her best friend in high school and a good two years after that. Sharpay had told her why she had left and she had understood, though keeping her mouth shut around Troy had taken some willpower.

"It could be," Troy answered, "I mean she might've wanted to meet her daughter, while keeping her distance from me. I wouldn't blame her."

The five adults near the bar all went quiet, as they all remembered Gabriella.

"Hello, Aunt Taylor."

The adults, all as one, turned around to face Max, who was looking them all concernedly.

Taylor smiled at the girl as she gave little Jonathan to Chad and reach out and gave Max a hug. "Happy fourteenth birthday party!"

"Fourteenth birthday party?" Max asked, with a sceptical look.

"Well, it's not your real birthday is it?" Taylor asked back.

"True," Max agreed, smiling. "So how's Jonathan?"

"He's going to be the best basketball player ever!" Chad said, throwing his offspring up a little. Taylor quickly took her son and held her close to herself, while giving her husband the evil eye. "Do not do that!"

Chad grinned at her, as he crouched down and messed up Max's hair, "So happy birthday… party?"

Max laughed as they hugged and after that she hugged Aunt Sharpay and Uncle Ryan. "I think I got to go back there," she said, gesturing to her friends, "By the way dad, your chance to shine will come in about ten minutes."

Then she ran away, leaving Troy stare at her. "Oh no."

"What?" Ryan and Sharpay asked together.

"That stupid promise I did…" Troy said, "She's going to make me sing something on the stage!"

For a few minutes his four friends looked at him, before smiles spread over their faces.

"This ought to be good," Chad said and Ryan nodded. "I haven't heard you sing for a good while."

"That's because I DO NOT sing," Troy said.

"Yeah, that's what Gaby and you said in high school," Sharpay pointed out, before gesturing at herself and Ryan, "And we've always sang and look what happened. We got kicked from the musical and you pretty much owned the talent show. You also beat us at the duet competition."

"Yeah, good times, good times," Ryan said with a grin. "I'll always have fond memories of Sharpay screaming in the pool, when Gaby was hired as the lifeguard."

"What about you dancing at the baseball pitch?"

"Yeah, that was hilarious," Chad answered, before Ryan reminded him that he did that too.

"Remember Prom night? Taylor asked, "And all that crap about who will be the prom queen? It was so…"

"Ingenious," Sharpay ended, "If anyone but her had beaten me, I would have gone on a killing spree."

"With those puffy sleeves of yours?" Ryan chocked out. "That had to be the best dress anyone has worn to prom night."

"I told you that those three maniacs ruined my real dress," Sharpay answered, folding her hands.

"After what you did to those cupcakes," Taylor said, shaking her head, "You could have had worse."

"She didn't even want to enter," Troy answered, shaking his head, "But Taylor and Kelsi managed to talk her into it."

"I knew it," Sharpay yelled, pointing at Taylor, "It was you!"

"Well, can you blame me for wanting to see a pretty face on the walls for once? After staring at your face for weeks?"

Troy grinned and Ryan laughed. The two women glared each other for a moment, before they started to laugh as well.

Troy smiled fondly on that memory and Taylor couldn't help but comment, "It feels good to be finally talk freely about her, doesn't it?"

Sharpay nodded, while Chad and Ryan gave Troy a look, before they shrugged together.

"What do you think she's doing with her life now?" Troy asked from his friends. Ryan shrugged again,

"Probably teaching something we couldn't even pronounce in some high level school, where only people with bigger brains than most peoples head can get into."

Sharpay grinned, "I'm with you on that. She could be the headmistress in a school full of small Einsteins and Einstenettes."

Taylor nodded, "Something like that or she's a doctor, who makes up medicines as she goes. Probably working for a medicine against cancer as we speak."

"Dad, come on," someone suddenly yelled. They all looked left where Max was waving frantically.

"She called! She's almost here, so get ready!" She then ran off, leaving Troy look after her again…

"Who's almost here?" he asked, bewildered. His four companions shrugged.

Max went to the guy, who was taking care of the music and told him what she needed and how she needed it. The guy, who Troy had hired, got it and then Max hurried back to the crowd. As she noticed Gabriella enter, she grinned wickedly and climbed onto the stage.

"Hey," she said into the microphone, just to make sure it worked. It did and so she continued, "Since this is a karaoke club, I've gotten somebody to sing the stage in for tonight. So, yeah, the two who were stupid enough to promise me a song, get yourself up here."

"I'm not going," Troy said to Chad, who was grinning at him.

"Oh, yes you are," he said, "Now go on, before I drag you up there."

Troy got up grudgingly and made his way through the crowd of teens in front of the stage. In the meanwhile Max was hurrying to get Gabriella.

She was standing just in front of the entrance when Max reached her.

"So are you ready?" she asked.

"You know, I just changed my mind," Gabriella replied, "I'm just going to do something else…"

"You can't do that," Max said simply, "A promise is a promise… Now come on."

For a tiny moment Gabriella seemed to weigh her options – To flee or not to flee?

"Alright," Gabrielle finally gave in, as she gave Max a hug, from which the girl quickly pulled away from.

"Ah, you're all wet," she exclaimed, taking in Gabriella's look. She was wearing a long, black raincoat with a hood and she was dripping wet.

"Yeah, why do I think I hugged you?" Gabriella asked and Max scoffed at her. Gabriella only grinned and gave her a small box, "Happy birthday."

"…party," Max ended quietly, but Gabriella didn't seem to hear. "Here," Max said, giving her the wireless microphone, "You can take off the coat and put it on the chair by the wall in the far end of the stage."

Gabriella took a deep breath and climbed onto the stage and went straight into the farthest point of the stage and started to take off her coat, thus not noticing how a man climbed onto the stage and faced the crowd.

Max nodded to the guy behind the computer-thingy. The music started and on the screen in front of Troy words appeared.

Gabriella just took off the coat when she heard the melody. It took her exactly two seconds to recognize the song and she chuckled softly into the microphone she was holding. "That's low, Max," she whispered quietly enough for nobody to hear.

Troy froze as the melody started and for a moment he just stood there, with no readable expression on his face. Then he smiled. 

"Why did you choose that song?" Taylor asked from Max, who grinned in response.

"She told me it was the song that changed her life and besides, it was already made for two people, so it worked out." Max looked as her father looked weird and asked, "Has dad heard this song before?"

"You can say that," Taylor answered wryly.

And then the words started.

Troy took a deep breath and started to sing, "Living in my own world…"

Gabriella's heart stopped beating and she almost dropped the microphone. Her whole body tensed up and she couldn't breathe.

'I'm imagining it,' she told herself, 'I'm just making myself hear things because of the song.'

And yet, she didn't believe what she told herself.

In the crowd Ryan was looking at that girl on the stage carefully. She was still standing towards the crowd with her back and yet he thought he recognized her from somewhere.

"Did you see her tense up?" he asked from his sister who was filling her glass with Coke.

"Who?"

"Never mind," Ryan replied, looking at the girl carefully. Sharpay shrugged and drank her Coke.

His lines were over and Gabriella was still in state of shock, so she did the only thing she could think of. She sang back.

"I never believed in, what I couldn't see. I never opened my heart, to all the possibilities."

Time froze for Troy and four other adults in the room. For Gabrielle, the time had already frozen when she heard the male voice. Sharpay and Ryan were staring the girl harder than they had ever stared anyone.

Chad, who had thrown his son up, barely caught him and Taylor was too busy looking shocked to yell at him.

The couple on the stage was obvious to the melody as neither of them sang anymore.

Troy's mind was all over the place. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible. He so wanted for it to be her. What would he do? What would she say? How would she react?

Slowly both of them turned around on their spots.

"Oh god…" Gabriella spoke out as she saw Troy. Just a second later, the microphone from her hands was dropped. Then another microphone hit the ground, as Troy whispered, "Gaby..."

In the crowd, Sharpay Evans dropped her glass with a cling as she stared the couple on the stage in disbelief. Ryan was just plainly gaping alongside with Chad. Taylor kept patting her son, obvious to the fact that her son had moved a bit and she was patting her own knee.

Nobody else existed for Troy but the woman who was standing in front of him. He had promised to find her and here she was, just a few metres away. Almost in his reach. "Gaby," he breathed out again, this time louder.

Gabriella couldn't take her eyes off Troy. It was definitely him and he was looking at her. Her breathing was getting louder and her knees felt weak. She had dreamt of this happening, but usually it involved Troy yelling at her for leaving. Why wasn't he saying anything?

'Why isn't she saying anything?' Troy thought. She must hate me for what I did, for what I said. He wanted to move towards her, but his legs were rooted to the spot.

"What's going on?" Max whispered to her aunt Taylor, "Do they know each other?"

"Well, kind of," Taylor answered, not taking her eyes away the stage, but stopping the patting movement, "I can't believe it's Gabriella."

"You know her too?"

Taylor nodded in distraught, "She used to be my best friend."

Max was even more confused than before, but movement on the stage caught her eyes.

Gabriella was standing, frozen, as Troy started to move towards her. Here it comes, she though. She mentally prepared herself for the yelling.

"Gabriella," Troy said, standing barely a foot away from her.

"Troy," Gabriella answered, hating how vulnerable her voice sounded with him so close to her. She wanted to be tough, she wanted not to care about what he was going to tell her and yet, she'd never feel so weak in a long time. "Please let me explain."

"I don't need your explanation," he answered, his voice hoarse. Sharpay was this close to run up there and hit Troy with something big and heavy if he hurt her again, but well, she lost that wanting in a few seconds.

Before Gabrielle could say anything else, Troy's lips were on hers. For a split-second she wanted to pull away; to find out why he was doing this, why wasn't he doing what he was supposed to do? But she really didn't want to pull away, not for the world. All the feelings for Troy; feelings she had tried so hard to suppress, were surfacing and she didn't ever try to fight them.

In the crowd, five people were more than stunned. After a wolf whistle from a boy in the crowd, Taylor asked, "Should we break them up?"

Sharpay looked at her sharply, "Try and I'll murder you."

Another wolf whistle.

"Here, I had an idea," Sharpay said, "Ryan take this end of this and I'll take that end."

The siblings made their way onto the stage and stood in either ends of the stage a humongous tablecloth spread out between them. It didn't take long for the weird teenagers to move to the sides of the stage, so soon enough Chad and Taylor both took another spare tablecloth and gave one end to either Sharpay or Ryan and stood in the two other points of the stage, thus shielding the couple completely.

"What's going on?" Max finally managed to ask, previously being too stunned to speak.

Sharpay looked onto the other way and Ryan peeked over the tablecloth, before answering, "You might not want to know."

"I want to know what they are doing," Max demanded and Ryan fidgeted a bit, before starting, feeling really uncomfortable, "Well you see, they're doing a thing which involves putting your lips together and well…"

"I KNOW WHAT KISSING IS," Max yelled out, "I want to know why the two of them are doing that!"

"Well, you see…" Ryan started, "Aunt Sharpay knows about that."

Sharpay looked quickly away from what was happening inside of those tablecloths and answered, "I'm sorry, I'm too busy grasping the fact that Troy and Gabriella are in there… together… kissing… each other… When I finally do, I might be able to string together a thought or two."

"Yeah…agreed on that…" Taylor said distraughtly.

"You know Gabriella?" Max asked from Ryan, who was the only one not looking cheesy.

"Well of course we knew her. Ever since she came to the school, she was the brain of East High."

"East High?" Max asked, "She went to the same school with you and dad?"

"Uh-uh," Ryan said, "The Brains meets the Muscle, we said when the two of them hooked up. They were the two most unlikely persons to hook-up and then Blam in our faces."

"Ryan," Sharpay admonished, "You have the emotional range of a teaspoon, honestly."

"Wait Gabriella dated dad?"

"Yeah, never understood why she did something stupid like that," Ryan agreed.

"You're just jealous, because you had a crush on her," Sharpay snapped.

"You had a crush on Gabriella?"

Ryan gave Sharpay the evil eye, before replying to Max, "My sister here is trying to play the blame game, because she herself had the biggest crush on Troy, but then again Gabriella was always a whole block ahead of her. You should've seen one of their showdowns."

"Would the two of you zip it," Taylor asked, "You're interrupting my gushing over these two."

"Still haven't broken it off?" Ryan asked, peeking over the tablecloth again, "Ugh…"

"Yeah, my words exactly," Ryan heard from the corner diagonally opposed to his. "I swear, seeing my ex teammate and best friend smooch like that with an ex friend…"

"Wait, you were also friends with Gabriella?" Max asked, moving to the side where Chad was holding up a corner of the tablecloth. "I mean you told me that you were only friends with the cool guys and well you just said that Gabriella represented brains, so how's that cool?"

Chad scoffed at her, "Hey, she was so not not-cool. She was brilliant in high school. Taylor and she managed to delay a whole basketball game. They were two the most brilliant girls in the school. Besides she wasn't that bad in basketball and she did the best gingerbread men in town."

"What's going on?" Max asked, more confused than ever. "I mean how come you all seem to know her, but yet you had no idea she lives in L.A?"

Chad looked at his son, while Ryan found sudden interest in his shoes. The two women were still gazing smilingly into the tablecloths.

"Don't they need to breathe?" Ryan asked, rolling his eyes. "I still don't think Troy deserves her after what he said, but then again fate doesn't seem to agree. Well, who am I to argue with fate, right?"

This seemed to bring some sense of reality into Gabriella and Troy, who stopped and started to pull away slowly. Taylor and Sharpay were giving Ryan the evilest eyes in the world.

Their breathing was short and shallow and they were both feeling really hot. Their eyes locked and for a while neither of them spoke.

Troy did the first move, as he gently said, "Forgive me, please."

Gabriella, who had been gazing at the floor, looked up sharply, "What? What should I forgive you for? It's me who should be asking for forgiveness right now!"

Outside of the tablecloths, everybody was holding their breath, including the kids, who were now trying to listen in what was happening. The four adults in the corners of the cloths, were staring intensely.

"No, it's me," Troy repeated, "Please, I'm sorry for running away. I'm sorry for those horrible things I said to you and I'm sorry for not trying harder to find you. I'm sorry for hiding myself and Julie and I'm sorry…"

He didn't get farther, because Gabriella's finger was on his lips. She shook her head and some tears were in her eyes,

"It's my fault, Troy. I need to tell you why I left you. I want to tell you."

"There's no need," Troy replied, "I know. A rather talkative girl told me a story about Ella and Michael."

Gabrielle chuckled slightly, "She told you then?"

Troy nodded, his forehead touching hers, "You could've told me, I would've at least tried to understand and I would never had left. I swear, Gabby, I'd have tried."

She nodded; her forehead still against his as Troy's hand came up to her cheek to wipe away a stray tear. As he did so, he noticed something. Gently and slowly, in a way that made Gabrielle gasp, his hand slid from her cheek to her collarbone and then few more inches lower until he gently tugged at the silver chain he could see. Out came a golden ring with an emerald on it.

They both looked at the ring in silence for a few moments. "You kept it?" Troy finally asked. Gabriella smiled slightly and nodded again.

The engagement ring reminded Troy something and he gently let his hand travel down to her hand where it caressed her ring finger. Her empty ring finger.

He sighed out in relief and Gabriella knew why. She explained, "Orlando died… two years ago… heart failure."

Troy looked up at her, feeling just a slightly bit hurt that she had married to anyone other than him, but then again… the phrase Blonde Screecher surfaced and he nodded.

Gabriella finally looked around to see her old friends from High School look at her with slight smiles on their faces. She felt more tears coming up and she shook her head.

"I don't belong here anymore," she said quietly, trying to step away.

"Oh yes, yes you do," Troy answered, reaching out and taking her hand to stop her from moving away from him. He put her hand on his chest, "You've always belonged here."

Gabriella felt his heart beat against her palm as he continued, "You've always belonged with me, with Julie."

Julie. The realization hit Gabriella like a ton of bricks. "Oh god… Max… Julie Maxine…" She felt close to faint for the third time that night. "Troy…she's ours… she's…"

"Out here and looking a bit… uh…" Sharpay quietly said. Troy and Gabriella looked at her.

"Let her in, won't you?" Troy snapped.

"Jeez, try to do anything nice for them…"

"He didn't mean it like that," Gabriella said, wiping her eyes into her sleeves, "Just…"

"Yeah, I get it," Sharpay, "One short person coming in."

Max had stood out there for the whole time, tying the loose ends together as she heard more and more. It didn't take long for her to put the puzzle together and for the rest of the time, she stood there, paralyzed.

"One short person coming in," Sharpay said, looking down at her, "Max, your dad needs to talk to you about…something."

She climbed in, while most of her guests started to fling questions at Sharpay, who just scoffed at them before saying, "You know, the party got just a bit more private… So scatter! The party will be rescheduled to happen in a water park or our country club or what ever weird places the kids go nowadays. Just go away for now!"

A few minutes later, the room was pretty much empty, other than Bill and a couple of more close friends.

"Please, go for now. This is something that they need to sort out," Taylor said and luckily the guests did as asked. Bill, before he left, asked,

"Max, are you alright?"

"Fine," the girl replied, "I think… I'll call you later…"

Bill bit his lip but followed Karen and Rose out onto the streets.

"Fine, I think. I'll call you," Max said weakly looking at her dad, whose hand was entwined with Gabriella's and both of them were eyeing her carefully.

Suddenly her aunts and uncles dropped the tablecloths.

"Listen, we'll go and sit by the bar," Sharpay said, "Give you some privacy."

The three of them nodded uncertainly and the four adults changed a glance before trailing to the bar, with a sleeping Jonathan in Chad's arms.

Gabriella was looking Max with a completely different look. She was her daughter. Her one and only daughter. Their daughter. Gabriella looked at Troy, who gave her somewhat encouraging smile and squeezed her hand in a comforting manner.

"Max…" Gabriella started, her voice breaking, "I…" that's how much she said before she realized – she had no idea what to say. Next to her, Troy was having a very similar situation.

"Well," Troy said, "You see…"

He fell quiet and looked at Gabriella, who was thinking of things to say. Finally she started, "Remember I told you that story, about Ella and Michael?"

Max nodded wordlessly. She knew exactly what was going on, she just didn't know how to feel about it. Ten minutes ago it had been she, her dad and her good friend. An adult but a friend nonetheless and now it was she, her dad and her… mom?"

"Well it was fairly obvious that I was Ella in that story," Gabriella continued, biting her lip, "and well…"

"I was Michael," Troy took over quietly, "Everything you told me before the party really happened. Almost exactly as you said it did."

They didn't know where to continue, but they didn't need to.

"Yeah, I put that one together a while ago," Max said, looking intensely at something in the left, as not daring to look at the two of them, "And well, if I got this correctly and I think I did, then..." she looked slowly up and moved her eyes over Troy and onto Gabriella until their eyes locked, "…my mum."

Whatever defences Gabriella had put up to defend herself from the pain, which thinking about her family used to cause, came crumbling down as the word escape Max lips. She had wanted that moment for so long and all she could do right now was to give her a small smile.

XxXxXxXxXx

A/N – Oh yeah, I'm done – finally! You will not believe what happened to me! I went with my mum to get myself some medicines when bang; our car was pulled to the side by a police car. We almost got a ticket, because I didn't have my seatbelt fastened – How dumb am I, huh? Now we have to go to a meeting on Thursday to listen about car safety or we have to pay a ticket.

Here we come boring police lecture!

Anyways about the story, how did you like Troy/ Gabriella reuniting. I wanted to make it something special, not like this – Gabriella entered the door and a man looked at her. They recognized each other and stormed into each others arms and started to make out in front of the door! WOHOO!

About one, maybe two more chapters to go. Wish me luck and good health… I need it for the lecture. By the way that was the first time I've actually been close to have a ticket. It was also the first time I got to sit in a police car – Good for me.

**How come I have more alerts than reviews? I need to feed myself! How happy would you be if after almost four days of hard work, you get a payment of 19 bucks?**

**Sorry for the long chappie and author note!**


	6. Chapter Six

**Chapter 6 **

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"Yeah," Troy said, since he noticed that neither of them was saying anything. They were just staring at each other in their weird way, "Gabriella is your mother."

That word again. More tears started to appear in Gabriella's eyes, but this time, she wasn't the only one, who had tear streaks along her cheeks. Taking a risk, Gabriella stepped a bit closer and said,

"Max don't cry," her voice was surprisingly calm, though her body was pretty much shaking, "Please, don't cry."

She almost jumped, when Max suddenly lunged at her. Then boom she was hugging her and she was hugging her daughter back, feeling like she really did belong here. She had cared for Max even before she knew that she was her daughter and yet now…

Troy was watching them from a foot away and he had hard time trying to stop himself from crying. In the corner of the room Taylor and Sharpay were hugging themselves and Ryan and Chad were just smiling widely.

"I can't believe this," Max said, pulling away, "I mean," she looked at the ceiling, "So you'd know, I don't cry usually."

"Yeah, me neither," Gabriella said, blinking rapidly and wiping her eyes dry, "Gave up on that after a good while."

"They do you no good, do they?"

"No, no good at all," Gabriella answered, already smiling lightly. Max looked down from the ceiling for a moment, just to smile back at her. Troy found himself smiling just for the simple fact that those two were doing it.

"Max," Gabriella started and the girl looked down again, "You remember when you asked about my daughter and what I would say to her if I found her?"

Max nodded.

"So I don't have to tell it all over again?"

Max smiled slightly and shook her head.

"Well, I still want to tell you something," Gabriella said, "When I had you, you were pretty much the centre of my life. The centre of our lives," she amended, "I loved you more than I loved anything else in the world and I'd given up anything for you. When I found out about the chance of you having the disease – I panicked. I could handle myself being sick, but you… What I'm trying to say is that I would have never left you, ever, if I'd thought that I had another way back then."

Max nodded slowly, "I know. That was in your speech too."

"It was?" Gabriella asked. Max nodded again. "Damn."

Troy came up to them at that point and laughed, "Gaby, you shouldn't use that kind of words around our innocent daughter."

"Our daughter," Gabriella just **had** to grin slightly at that phrase, "knows probably more of those kinds of words than you and I together."

"I like that," Troy whispered to Gabriella's ear, making her shudder, "You and I together."

"What did he say?" Max almost immediately asked as Gabriella's eyebrows rose and she took a deep breath.

"Nothing," Gabriella quickly said, but she knew that her voice betrayed her so she added, "Just being his old, nasty, suggestive himself."

"I'm not old!"

"Hey," Sharpay called from the bar, "Want to join us here? We'd like an update on you two, right about, well now."

"We're coming," Troy called back, while Max and Gabriella were still eying each other. They followed though and soon they were all sitting around the counter – Sharpay, Ryan and Taylor behind it and Chad, Troy, Gabriella and Max in front of it.

Troy suddenly jumped up and opened the refrigerator and pulled out two huge containers. He then took an equal humongous scoop and put some of ice-cream in the container onto the bowls.

"Oh, thank you," Gabriella breathed out as Troy gave her a bowl full of caramel ice cream.

"Yeah, dad, you're great," Max said, her spoon already in her bowl.

Troy gave everyone else a bowl as well before he sat down with the biggest bowl.

"What?" he asked, as everybody stared him. He looked at the bowl and explained, "After this day, I'm in desperate need of a brain freeze."

"You can't have that," Ryan pointed out, "You actually have to have a brain for it to freeze."

Everybody laughed and soon enough they all got relaxed enough for Taylor to ask,

"So, not that I'm prying or anything, but where do the two of you stand right now?"

Troy stopped eating and looked at Gabriella who had put down her spoon and was looking as it disappeared into the part of melt ice cream. Max was looking between the two of them, anticipation glowing in her eyes.

"Umm," Troy started, "You know what? I have no idea."

"Yeah, I agree to that one," Gabriella replied and the two of them looked up at the same time. They smiled briefly, before returning to their ice cream.

"Wait, you're not getting together or anything?" Max asked. Both of them looked back up immediately. Troy quickly said,

"I mean we_ could_ get back together someday, but Angel, we barely know each other. I mean, we just met over some long years and we might not, you know, feel the same way about each other than we did before, you know…"

"Yes," Gabriella answered, believing that Troy meant that he was not feeling the same way about her anymore. "He's right. We've both changed over the years and well, you can't force love onto someone."

"But you do love each other," Max exclaimed, "You've both told me so yourselves! Remember dad, when you finally told me about mum and you said you loved her more than anything in the world and that you'll never love anyone else that way?"

Troy felt suddenly that all the ice cream in the world couldn't relieve him from the warm feeling going all over his body, since all the adults, including Gabriella, were staring at him. He mumbled something in response, before hiding his face into his hands. This was it, now Gabriella would think he was just a pathetic little man…

"And Gaby, you told me that though you loved Orlando, it was the love that came from the safe feeling he was giving you and that it never, ever came even close to what you had with that fiancée of yours. All about that passionate love… You told me that if you had to choose, you wouldn't bother to hesitate."

Troy removed his hand from his face. He couldn't have heard that right. Maybe he imagined it to lessen his embarrassment.

But everyone's glances of disbelief had moved from Troy to Gabriella, who now wanted very much to be eaten by her own ice cream.

"I might've said that," she said, feeling that she was blushing. She was a grown woman. Grown women do not blush!

A huge grin spread over Troy's face as he looked at her. For some mystical reasons, she still loved him. Even after what he had said. And then when he understood and wanted to find her more than anything, she showed up. Ryan had hit the bullseye on that one. It was fate. It had to be.

"You really said that," Troy asked then.

Gabriella, as stubborn as always, asked back, "Did you say those things?"

Troy didn't hesitate, "Yes I did and I meant every word."

"Oh," the steeliness from Gabriella's voice disappeared, "Well, uh…"

"HELLO!"

Everybody froze in terror. It couldn't be.

"HELLLOOO!"

It was.

"Damn," Almost everyone except little Jonathan chorused.

"Are you in… Troy!" Sarah came into the view, "Honey, I want to explain what happened." Max's forehead hit the table with a bang as she groaned.

Chad leant over to Ryan and whispered, "I never understood what she saw in that chick."

"Makes two of us," Ryan whispered back.

"Three," Taylor added to their whispered conversation, putting her hands around her son's head, as to shield him for that woman.

"Hello, Sarah," Troy managed to squeeze out with some politeness. "You know, I think this is a closed party. Friends or close family only."

Sarah walked to Max what she thought was a seductive way but for Gabriella she looked like a chicken with crutches.

"Oh, but I am close family, aren't I Max? I'm the only mother figure you got."

Sharpay pulled in some breath and Gabriella herself was gripping the spoon hard enough that it bended a bit.

Taylor was glaring Sarah in a way that could've made her eyeballs pop out. But Max, used to the Blond Screecher, just shrugged. "You're definitely not the only one."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, "Is your father seeing anyone?"

"I do not see how's that your business," Troy started, but Max shook her head. "He's not seeing anyone at this precise moment, but he might. About the mother figures, look around the table." The politeness in her words shocked everyone, including herself.

"Eating ice cream are you?" Sarah said, ignoring the last thing Max had said and looking at the bowls, being obvious to the fact that everybody was staring at her and wishing for her to leave. "I think it makes you fat and some…" her eyes stopped on Sharpay and Taylor [Both of whom were very thin, I tell you, "…can't afford that."

Sharpay just smiled at her, in her mind wishing that she'd just crawl into a dark corner and die. Taylor just nodded, "Yes, I know what you mean," while she looked her up and down. Not that she was fat either, but at least Taylor got to return the favor. Sharpay grinned.

"And who are…" She looked at the brunette who was sitting next to Max. The woman looked up at her and Sarah's eyes widened.

"Oh, Miss Black."

"You know her?" Sharpay asked, a bit surprised.

"Of course," Sarah said, "We're what you'd call start-out friends."

For a moment everybody stared at her in disbelief until Chad found it a good time to chuckle at the way his son was sleeping. Sharpay nodded at Sarah before turning her face away her. Ryan did something similar, while Taylor just gaped at Sarah. Max got caught in a tremendous coughing spree and behind Sarah Troy was doing 'insane' and 'loco' motions to Gabriella, who was fighting a huge grin, which was forcing it's way to her face.

Then she made a decision. As she rose, everyone's eyes went on her. She grinned and said,

"I would rather marry a five foot seven tarantula, then ever call you a friend of any kind," everybody looked a bit shocked, but for different reasons.

"Oooh, she hates tarantulas, it's in the top of her natural enemies list," Chad pointed out for Sarah.

"You are the worst kind of woman I have EVER met," Gabriella continued, "All you ever care about is money and fame. You called Max stupid and when I disliked you for it before, then now I just plainly hate you for it."

"I didn't mean that;" Sarah defended herself, "I was just sooooo worried..."

"…About your nails," Gabriella continued for her, as she kept stepping closer, "You know what? Max was lying. Troy is seeing somebody and well, guess what, that's me."

Everybody stared again, again for different reasons. Troy recovered rather quickly as he jumped in,

"Yeah, I'm in love with her," he did a sweeping hand motion, "definitely."

"A week? You found yourself another bitch in a week?"

"Alright," Gabriella snapped, "I'm going to do something the guys in here wouldn't do because they're gentlemen, what Sharpay probably wants to do, but won't because of children present and which Taylor won't do because she's do nice."

"Wha…?" Sarah started, but didn't get farther than that.

SLAP

Sarah's hand went to her cheek automatically. "You, you…"

"Get out," Gabriella said, "Before I do it again."

"You…"

"Listen to her," Troy said, "Because I for one won't restrain Sharpay if she wants to have a swing."

"Yeah," Max agreed, "And never call my mum a bitch again."

"See where our kid get's her vocabulary from?" Gabriella asked from Troy, who grinned, "From the worst kind of people ever – Blond Screechers."

"Your kid," Sarah gasped out, "Max's your, your, your…"

"Kid?" Taylor offered, "It's a hard word, we know."

"What is going on?" Sarah asked, "I… I…"

"Am going?" Sharpay offered, "and personally I'd recommend running, because Gaby looks murderous. Bad look on such a sweet, innocent woman…"

Sarah did just that, she turned around on her heel and practically ran from her spot.

Near the bar counter, everybody burst out laughing. "I wasn't too mean, was I?" Gabriella asked, after they'd stopped.

"Are you kidding me?" Sharpay asked, "You can't honestly be worried about that."

Gabriella shrugged, but suddenly she felt something. Someone had taken her hand and was squeezing it gently. She looked up at Troy, who was using his left hand to eat his ice cream.

She smiled.

"So, since Max's here and the old crew is kind of back together…" Chad started.

"Kelsi isn't," Gabriella interrupted, "Where is she anyways? And what about Zeke?"

"Hmm, I forgot you're behind on the High School People news," Taylor said, "Kelsi and Jason got married and they're both working on Broadway. Kelsi writes music for the musicals and Jason usual takes parts in them."

Gabrielle nodded, "Makes sense so far."

"And Zeke owns a high level chain of restaurants and he himself is the head chef in the biggest one. He also got married. Found a nutty blonde person on the streets."

"Nutty blonde person?" Gabriella asked. She was pretty sure she knew who they were talking about, but she couldn't help it so she asked, "He got married to Darbus?"

Everybody started to laugh, when Sharpay looked a little… flustered.

"Oh come on, Sharpay, I was just kidding, but now, spill," Gabriella asked, "What did he make you this time? Caesar salad? Treacle Tart?"

Sharpay looked up and grinned, "Crème Brule."

"Didn't he already make that thing?" Gabriella asked, thoughtful.

"Nu-uh," Ryan answered, "He made it specially sweet and sour for her. With the exact amount of love…"

"…sweetness…" Chad added, smiling.

"…caring…" Taylor put in.

"And pure lust," Troy ended and Sharpay was ready for the teasing to start. When it didn't she looked up to see Gabriella smiling at her. "What?"

"Nothing. I'm jealous of you."

"Huh?" almost everybody chorused.

"I mean I wished I had a guy like that who goes through all that trouble just for me," Gabriella said, grinning. Sharpay perked up visibly and nodded, "You know, I just remembered why I loved you more than I loved these losers."

"Thanks a lot," Chad scoffed at her. Troy though was going through all of his pockets.

"Dad, did you lose something?" Max asked, after she stopped laughing over the adults' antics.

"My phone… Where is it?" he asked, patting all over his blouse.

"Back pocket," Max said, "It's always in the back pocket."

Troy found it soon enough and quickly started to press the buttons of it. Three minutes later, he sent away a long text message.

"What did you do?" Ryan asked.

"Told Zeke what was going on and asked for the recipe for Crème Brule," Troy answered grinning, "I might want to try and make one some day."

Chad looked at Taylor, who was giving him long glances from across the table. Chad shook his head. More glances. "No."

Long glance.

"Fine," he gave in, "I'll get the damn recipe."

That sent everyone over it again and they laughed about Chad's whipped position. "Remember when we found out that Zeke was baking in the first place?" Chad asked, just to get the attention off himself.

"Yeah, you went crazy," Troy nodded, "Told me that me and Gabriella ruined the whole school, since the worst thing happened – Skaterdudes mingled with us!"

"Oh go to hell," Chad muttered, "We helped the two of you together, didn't we?"

"Yeah," Gabriella agreed, "After you split us up."

"Oh… Right," Chad said, "But we were deeply sorry, of course. We even came to the winter musical and I, the man who never, ever could've been in a musical before, was the singing star."

"You mean you got a lead as well?" Max, asked interested.

"Nu-uh," Troy answered to her daughter, "He was literately a singing star with a smiley sewn to the back of his costume."

"Oh…"

"Well," Taylor said, feeling like she should advert the subject away from her husband, started, "Gaby, since we haven't even seen you for a long, long time, not that I'd blame you for not keeping contact with your ex best friend," Taylor gave an exparated sigh, "but what have you been up to?"

"Yeah, tell us," said Ryan, "We kind of discussed what you could do and I'd like to find out who got closer."

"Well I'm in biomedical research and I'm specialized on hematological neoplasm," Gabriella said, as she ate her a bit melt ice cream.

"Oh, well," Taylor said, trying to look like she understood what she had said, "I got the closest answer, I think, since I predicted she worked in medicinal area."

"Well, mine was close too," Ryan argued, "Since she is doing something we can't spell or pronounce."

"He-e-ma-too-logical," Taylor said, "See I pronounced it."

"Oh, zip it both of you," Sharpay said, "One day she'll retire and then she'll be the headmistress in a school full of tiny Einsteins and Einsteinettes."

Gabriella laughed, "So that said, what's up in your lives?"

Sharpay decided to give her the short overview, "Chad is a basketball player for the Lightning Bolts, he got married to Taylor three years ago and their son is one years old and his name is Jonathan. Taylor teaches science in the university just nine miles away from here."

"Ryan is single, duh," Sharpay grinned, "He is giving yoga classes, since we don't really need the money, but still, he makes some."

"Zeke opened his first restaurant six years ago in Albuquerque, but after he worked it onto the top, wanted to move to a more crowded place, so I helped to set him up in just outside of California. He's been working his way to the top ever since. We got engaged four years ago, got married two years ago. I've been working on a chain of beauty salons and I'm doing great so far."

She pointed to Troy, "He's the coach of Lightning Bolts, but doesn't play pro anymore. He used to under a weird name, but he gave up about two years ago and started to coach the team Chad was on. He's been single forever, only with two or three serious girlfriends."

"Was that Sarah woman one of those 'serious' girlfriends?" Gabriella asked and Troy scowled at himself inwardly.

"We didn't believe so until Max called us, near hysterics and told us that they were thinking of getting married. Then she screamed something at someone and then the phone was hung up."

Max grinned, "That's when I ran out of the house and ended up under Gabriella's roof. She dragged me into the house, because she was sure that being a stubborn ass as I was, I would've slept on the street just to not go home."

"I didn't call you a stubborn ass!" Gabriella exclaimed. Max grinned, "I know, I called myself that. Though I'm very glad that I ran away that night."

"Not that I think running away is okay," Troy said, "But maybe that one time, it worked out for the best." His hand squeezed Gabriella's under the table and the woman smiled slightly as she squeezed back.

Troy hadn't gotten her out of his head for not a single moment. He was afraid. Yes, Troy Bolton was very afraid.

He had no idea where the two of them were standing and he didn't want to let go of her hand if it meant that she'll pull it away; maybe for good. What if she didn't love him anymore?

No, Julie said that she had told her that she always had passionate love for him and she hadn't denied it.

She hadn't agreed to it either, you moron. Troy glanced at Gabriella, who was smiling fondly at Max, who was telling the rest of the crew some kind of story. She finished and the whole table, including Max and Gabriella erupted in laughter.

There they were, the two most important women in his life, just sitting and talking. Just being there, together, without any tenseness between them like it had been on the stage. They looked just content with how they were.

Troy gave Gabriella's hand another squeeze and she turned her head and smiled. Troy found himself staring at her lips as they curved into a smile and he couldn't help, but grin widely back. Their eyes locked for a brief second as Troy looked up. They both breathed quietly and looked away. In the farthest end of the counter, Sharpay Evans rolled her eyes with her brother.

Gabriella turned to look away with just a tiny smile. In one night she had almost forgotten everything bad that had happened between her and Troy and now she just wanted for it to go back to how it used to be before those horrible mistakes she had done. Before those mistakes Troy had made.

His hand was still holding hers and she just wished he'd never let go. This felt so right. Her eyes stopped on Max, who looked up almost immediately as feeling somebody looking at her. Max smiled and Gabriella smiled as well. Who could not smile if an angle like that grinned at you in her contagious way?

Another squeeze to her hand. Gabriella started to slide her thumb over his in a ticklish manner and it didn't take more than two times for Troy to stop chatting to Chad as he flexed the muscles in his hand a bit. Gabriella grinned; she still knew how to get him just a bit winded.

Troy squirmed a bit, not wanting to give Gabriella the pleasure to make him even smile. But it was so hard not to. If he could hardly not smile because of the tickling, then not smiling because he knew that Gabriella still remembered his ticklish thumbs, was twice as hard.

Suddenly Troy pulled his hand away from hers. Gabriella looked up, but before she could even raise an eyebrow, his hand was back in hers, but in a different way. Now Troy's fingers started to move up and down in her palm making her wriggle in the barstool a bit. Her palm was the most ticklish place on her hand and Troy was using it against her.

Max noticed that Gabriella was acting a bit weird, since she kept tapping her foot against the ground and giving his dad glances that could kill. She also tugged her hand from time to time, but it seemed to be stuck at something. Finally having enough, Max stuck her head under the table. A moment later her head appeared again with a huge grin on its face.

"What're they doing," Chad asked, since they were fairly obvious. Troy kept grinning as Gabriella tried to do something with her hand, which wasn't budging.

"Dad's tickling her arm and isn't letting go. Gaby is going nuts."

Chad chuckled, "They always knew how to press each other's buttons…" Then he leant over to give Taylor the message.

Suddenly everybody's eyes went to Troy who let out a loud gasp. Next to her, Gabriella pulled her hands away from under the table and placed them onto the counter, where she scratched her left palm, just to get rid of the tingling feeling.

Troy was watching her with wide eyes. "You… You…"

"What did she do?" Ryan asked.

"She… She… just… That was… low!"

"Not like I haven't done it before," Gabriella said with a grin, while Troy stared her, unbelievable look on his face. The he shook his head and looked at his bowl which was pretty much empty.

"I need more ice cream. Really cold ice cream."

"I'll put you some, since your obviously not in a position to do so yourself," Gabriella said, grinning widely and in a closer look you would've seen a slight blush. Troy was the only one to see it, but he was too busy not trying to think at all.

"Why isn't he in the position to get some ice cream? What's going on?" Max asked, completely out of the loop.

It took a few more seconds for Taylor to figure it out and she started to chuckle. Gabriella, who was filling the bowls, turned around and winked at her.

"Sweet, innocent woman in your face Sharpay," Taylor gasped out, before laughing even more.

"What?" Sharpay asked, before her mind started to put it together. Why Troy had released Gabriella's other hand so suddenly, why for a few seconds both of Gabriella's hands were under the table… "Oh… sweet Jesus…"

She burst out laughing.

"What? Explain," Chad said.

"Don't tell them," Gabriella said, the tiny blush again on her cheeks, "If they can't figure it out…"

"Figure what out?" Max asked, "I'll figure it out if you tell me what."

Troy and Gabriella looked at her, before they both abruptly looked away, "You're better not figuring it out," Gabriella finally said, grinning, "You're even better not doing this yourself for a goooood while."

"Well," Troy said, clearing his throat, "Do you remember the prom night, Gaby?"

"How couldn't I if I have a reminder eating ice cream right next to me?" Gabriella asked with a grin. Troy blinked, before coughing loudly and returning to eat ice cream. He needed lots of cooold ice cream if they talked about those things.

"Wait, you made her on Prom night?" Ryan asked, grinning widely.

"Yeah, well," Troy said, "I didn't mean that part of the prom night, but the time when we were actually at the prom."

"Wait what do you mean I was made on prom night?"

Troy groaned loudly, while Gabriella chuckled slightly, though the tiny blush was still on her face. Thank god for the low light in karaoke bars.

"Think, Angel," Troy said, quietly, "Cause we are not elaborating."

He was getting more flustered by the minute and every time Gabriella looked at him… Thank lord for the cold ice cream.

Luckily Gabriella changed the subject from Troy and herself to Chad and Taylor by asking what they did on the prom night. It worked.

From there they started to remember times before Gabriella left and they had fun doing that.

Finally it was pretty late and they came to a decision to wrap it up for the night.

"Troy?"

Troy, who had been finishing up putting the tablecloths back to where they belonged, turned around to see a bit nervous Gabriella behind him. It was the first time he saw her in this way since college, since during their counter party she had been funny and challenging and teasing even. Now she looked like she wanted to have the earth swallow her.

"Gaby, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she quickly said, noting that the group by the exit was looking them closely, "I just wanted to ask…"

The group waited for a good few minutes before Gabriella and Troy joined them, holding hands. They looked a bit uncomfortable as they stood in front of them.

"Julie," Troy started, "Gaby and I were wondering if you could…"

"Spend the night somewhere outside of the house?" Max asked. Since their expressions were purely shock, she took it as a yes, "I can go to Aunt Sharpay's, I think."

"Yeah, she can. We'll let the two of you talk."

"Actually," Gabriella started, but Troy stopped her. Instead he said, "If it's alright with you, Max?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Max said with a smile, "Just don't get into an argument and…" she looked at Gaby, "promise you won't go anywhere."

Gabriella's heart soared, "Oh god, I'd never leave you again. I promise."

"Good enough for me," Max said with a slight smile, "I'll be going with Aunt Sharpay and Uncle Ryan. Dad can give you a lift to the house right? You came by foot."

Gabriella nodded and Max and Ryan, alongside with Sharpay hurried away before they could reply anything else. Gabriella turned around to face Troy.

"I thought we were going to go to a restaurant to speak?" she asked. Troy shrugged,

"We can talk in my house," he offered, "It's quiet as well."

"Yes, but, well, I had a reason why I didn't offer to talk in my house," she said, rather quickly.

Troy hadn't thought of that before, so he asked, "What was the reason?"

Gabriella bit her lip and took a big step towards Troy. She put one of her hands onto his chest. Troy's breathing slowed and his hands moved to her waist while he leant forward.

Gabriella quickly stepped away, breathing just a tiny bit louder than usually, "See?" she asked, exparated, "We need to talk about Max and well, us."

Troy grinned wickedly, "And you don't think you should resist the Troy Bolton charm, while we're in a completely empty house, just the two of us…"

Gabriella scoffed at him, "Unless you're forgetting it was me who stepped away from you a moment ago."

Troy shrugged, still grinning, before his expression went serious, "Listen, Gaby, I know that lot of things have happened between you and me and keeping the emotions under control can be difficult, for both of us, but I promise to try my hardest while we talk, because I'm rather interested in both of our subjects."

The two of them walked to the car. As a gentleman Troy opened the door for Gabriella, who grinned and sat in, Troy hurrying around the car to the driver's seat. The drove towards the house, not speaking much, but their hands kept battling.

"Keep your hands on the wheel Bolton," Gabriella commanded, changing the radio station.

"You keep your hands away from the radio, Ms. Montez," Troy answered. Gabriella fell silent for just a moment, before she grinned and changed back to the radio station she liked. Just then it begun,

"We have received a call from one of our faithful listeners, who ask to perform a song live. We're happy to comply so, here you go."

"Love is everywhere you look," a woman sang, "Love is always right next to you."

Gabriella grinned and looked left from where Troy was looking right back to her. And then…

"Made you look didn't we? If you are listening this, then Bolton, you're whipped – she's taken over your car! Bolton and Montez, sitting on a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!"

"Well, that was an interesting end for that song…"

But Gabriella and Troy weren't listening. Instead they were staring at the radio.

"How did they…" They started together.

"I don't…" "Me neither."

They laughed as Troy pulled over by his house. He helped Gaby out and they walked into the house [After Troy unlocked the door of course

"Home sweet home," Troy let out as he hung up his coat and took the black raincoat from Gabriella's hands, since she hadn't worn it and hung it up there as well. He led him to the living room where he offered her a drink. She accepted it, just in case.

For a while they talked about Julie and what had been going on with her life. Then the subject changed.

"What are we going to do about us?" Troy bluntly asked. Gabriella smiled from the armchair she was sitting, while Troy was sitting on the wide sofa.

"I don't know," she replied, looking right at Troy's blue eyes. Jeez, a girl could get lost in those… she quickly shook her head and Troy smiled a bit. Gabriella continued, "I mean we can't very well go back to the way we were before those things happened, can we?"

"I don't know that," Troy answered as he moved and pulled Gabriella gently up, before they both sat onto the couch. He looked into her eyes and it took a moment before he managed to drag his eyes off again, before he asked, his voice barely hearable, "Can we?"

Gabriella shook her head, "We can't. I mean we have to see if things work out between us, before… Troy, you can't do this to me!"

Troy jerked back a bit, "Do what?"

"I thought I had my life all worked out. I had a work that I loved, my house was okay, my friends were somewhat behind me and then you just show up and I don't even care about anything else right now. You just turned everything upside down."

Gabriella was ranting badly when Troy finally stopped her. She looked up at him and she had some tears in her eyes. Troy smiled lightly, "If this is your way to tell me that you love me, then Gaby, I love you too."

Gabriella opened her mouth, but Troy stopped her,

"Yeah, I know that we can't just be who we were. When I met you I was the basketball guy, but I wanted to be just a guy. You gave me that. But you also made me to be other things – you made me be a freaky-callback-guy, you made me be a singing guy, you made me a dad."

"Though I'm not hoping that you'd marry me right now or anything, I'd want to make sure you were close. I want to have you close and even if we can't get as close as I'd want, just for the simple reason that getting together too soon and finding out that we don't match anymore and then break up would hurt Julie, I still want you, Gaby. I want you."

Gabriella was pretty much crying again. Still she gently looked up at him and said, "Troy, you've always had me. Ever since that Teen Party."

Troy smiled slightly and brought his lips down to meet hers. As they pulled away, Troy asked, "So Gaby, would you be my girlfriend?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," Gabriella answered, laughing as Troy sat down onto the couch again and pulled her down with him. He fell flat on his back with Gabriella on top of him. They laughed a bit until Gabriella rolled onto his side, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"How are we going to Max?" she asked.

"I'd say, something like this…"

When Max was driven home by Sharpay the next day, the first thing they noticed was that Gabriella's shoes and coat were still there. Sharpay got a calculating look on her face so when Max started to open the doors to the living room, she stopped her. She quietly opened the door and peeked in to see Gabriella and Troy on the couch. Clothed, thank goodness.

They were both sleeping on their sides, very much pressed together though the couch was rather wide and there was room. One of Troy's hands was under the pillow they shared and the second one was on Gabriella's bare stomach. No it wasn't bare, because she wasn't wearing anything! It was bare because her shirt had ridden up a bit, thus revealing a bit of her stomach.

Gabriella's hand was also under the pillow. Her second hand was resting on Troy's hand and her neck was tilted a bit.

Max and Sharpay both grinned a bit and made their way to the kitchen, practically tip-toeing.

Troy woke about half an hour later and the first thing he noticed was the woman in front of him. A relieved sigh escaped his lips as he thanked god for her actually being there, in his arms. He didn't know what he did to deserve this second chance, but whatever it was, somebody tell him and he'll do it one hundred more times, just to show how grateful he was.

Smiling, he gently moved Gabriella's hair onto the side and kissed her ear. She wiggled her head a bit, but other than that didn't wake. He gently kissed his way down her neck, making her moan slightly.

"What time is it?" she asked, really quietly as Troy looked at her.

"11am," he answered, smiling. Gabriella smiled back sleepily before asking, "Where's the bathroom?"

"Down the hall, first door to the left," Troy answered and as she left, he though, that his love from his past had returned to him in the present and now all he could do was to hang on tight. It happened rarely that fate gave someone a second chance and here was his. It had come from the past, it was here in the present and he just hoped it'll be there in the future – His one and only true love.

THE END…

…Or is it? Who knows, I might want to continue someday, just not right now.

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A/N – So what did you think? Is this good enough? Please Review, because if I get lots of reviews, I know I'm appreciated and you like the way I write. It'll encourage me to write more! Other than that, I got and idea yesterday – Have you seen parent trap? Would you like to see a fanfic about Troyella based on that? Twins Vanessa and Valerie – parents Troy and Gabriella – life is chaotic!


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